Adenovirus E1A Activation Domain Regulates H3 Acetylation Affecting Varied Steps in Transcription at Different Viral Promoters

While hypoacetylation of histone H3 lysines 18 and 27 is associated with repression, the step(s) in the overall process of transcription that is blocked at a hypoacetylated promoter is not clearly established in most instances. Studies presented here confirm that the adenovirus 2 large E1A protein activation domain interacts with p300 as reported by Pelka et al. 2009, and that the resulting acetylation of H3K18/27 affects varied steps in transcription at different viral promoters. Primary Human Bronchial/Tracheal Epithelial Cells (HBTEC) were infected with an Ad5-based vector expressing wild-type E1A (wt) at an MOI Of 20; a mixture of the wt E1A-expressing vector at an MOI of 5 with an Ad5 mutant containing an E1A deletion (dl312) at an MOI of 95; or an Ad5 mutant expressing E1A with multi-alanine substitutions in regions involved in p300 binding at an MOI of 100. H3K9ac, H3K18ac, H3K27ac, TBP and Pol2 association were subsequently examined on the HAd5 genome by ChIP-seq.