Functional interaction between Epstein-Barr virus replication protein Zta and host DNA damage response protein 53BP1.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV; human herpesvirus 4) poses major clinical problems worldwide. Following primary infection, EBV enters a form of long-lived latency in B lymphocytes, expressing few viral genes, and it persists for the lifetime of the host with sporadic bursts of viral replication. The switch between latency and replication is governed by the action of a multifunctional viral protein Zta (also called BZLF1, ZEBRA, and Z).