Tax gene product
A Tax Gene Product (Tax) is a
daltons
.
Tax gene
Tax is produced by members of the
mRNA from genetic code) of viral proteins in the long terminal repeat that are essential for replication.[2][3][4]
Role in disease
mutations in DNA; a classical hallmark of cancer. Tax also causes aneuploidy (abnormal chromosome numbers), which is a possible cause of transformation (normal cells becoming cancer cells). Many proteins are involved in these processes, including cyclins and cell cycle checkpoint proteins (p53 and Rb).[4] Interesting, HTLV-1 Tax viral gene is known to dampen innate antiviral signaling pathways to avoid host detection and elimination, through SOCS1 and Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Interacting Protein (AIP).[5][6]
Although Tax from HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 can cause cells to become cancerous experimentally, Tax produced by
HTLV-1 and therefore is thought to be the reason that HTLV-2 is not associated with ATL.[1]