Cellular interaction partners of NS1 lacking affinity to cytotoxicity mutants. (A) Domain structure of NS1 (25). The common N terminus of NS1 and NS2 is shown as a dotted box. The crosshatched box represents the homology region with SV40 large-T antigen, and the checkered box denotes the transactivation domain. NS1 domains involved in the DNA binding, helicase, and overall replication functions of the viral product are delineated on top. The nucleotide-binding site (NTP-Binding), oligomerization region, nuclear localization signal (NLS), and DNA-nicking motifs (metal coordination site and linkage tyrosine) are indicated. NS1 regions harboring mutations affecting CPE induction are represented as black boxes. Consensus PKC phosphorylation sites (P) are indicated in black if the corresponding mutant was impaired in its ability to induce CPE and in gray if no significant change was detected compared to the wild-type protein. Positions of NS1 mutants T363 and S473 used to search for NS1 interaction partners are indicated. (B) Cell fractionation procedure used to enrich for “rare” NS1 interaction partners. P-cell, phosphocellulose column with P1, flow-through at 150 mM NaCl concentration; P2, eluate at 400 mM NaCl; P3, eluate at 1 M NaCl. DEAE, DE52 anion-exchange column with DE1, flow-through at 200 mM NaCl; DE2, eluate at 400 mM NaCl; DE3, eluate at 1 M NaCl. Cellular proteins in P3-DE1 with affinity for GST were purified on GST-coated glutathione Sepharose beads; residual polypeptides were then coimmunoprecipitated with either wild-type or mutant GST-tagged NS1. (C) Coimmunoprecipitation of 35S-labeled cellular proteins with GST-NS1 derived from vaccinia virus expression in HeLa cells. The left panel shows a comparison between wild-type NS1, NS1:T363A, and NS1:S473A using total nuclear squeeze from A9 cells, while the right panel presents a comparison between wild-type NS1 and NS1:S473A using partially purified proteins after phosphocellulose and DE52 column chromatography. Proteins with affinity for the GST tag have been eliminated prior to the immunoprecipitation with GST-NS1. The arrow points at a ∼40-kDa polypeptide specifically interacting with wild-type NS1, while lacking affinity to the cytotoxic NS1 mutant S473A.