Targeting of PML Proteins and PML Nuclear Bodies by DNA Tumour Viruses

Abstract

Promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) protein is the principal and much studied component of subnuclear structures known as PML NBs. These structures and/or their components have been implicated in a very wide range of cellular processes, without the precise mechanism of their involvement being determined. One of the key areas of PML study has been the interactions that many viruses make with PML NBs during infection, leading to the suggestion that PML NBs play a role in antiviral responses. This chapter reviews what is known about the interactions between various DNA tumour viruses and other viruses with PML NBs, and places this information in the wider context of the functions ascribed to PML NBs in the uninfected cell to consider what is the underlying purpose of this class of virus:host interactions