Ubiquitin E3 ligases are important cellular components for endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation due to their role in substrate-specific ubiquitination, which is required for retrotranslocation (dislocation) of most unwanted proteins from the ER to the cytosol for proteasome degradation. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of how E3 ligases confer substratespecific recognition, and their role in substrate retrotranslocation is limited especially in mammalian cells. mK3 is a type III ER membrane protein encoded by murine ␥ herpesvirus 68. As conferred by its N-terminal RING-CH domain, mK3 has E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. In its role as an immune evasion protein, mK3 specifically targets nascent major histocompatibility complex class I heavy chains (HC) for rapid degradation. The mechanism by which mK3 extracts HC from the ER membrane into the cytosol for proteasome-mediated degradation is unknown. Evidence is presented here that HC down-regulation by mK3 is dependent on the p97 AAA-ATPase. By contrast, the kK5 protein of Kaposi's sarcomaassociated herpesvirus is p97-independent despite the fact that it is highly homologous to mK3. mK3 protein was also found in physical association with Derlin1, an ER protein recently implicated in the retrotranslocation of HC by immune evasion protein US11, but not US2, of human cytomegalovirus. The mechanistic implications of these findings are discussed.To exist in the presence of an active host immune system, herpesviruses in particular have elaborate mechanisms of immune evasion. For example, to specifically block CD8 T cell detection of infected cells, murine ␥ herpesvirus 68 (␥HV68) expresses the mK3 protein. The mK3 protein is a viral RING-CH type ubiquitin E3 ligase (1) that specifically ubiquitinates MHC 2 class I heavy chains (HC) causing their rapid degradation in a proteasome dependent manner (2, 3). Thus mK3 inhibits surface class I expression and its antigen presentation function required for cytolytic T cell detection of virus infected cells. Consistent with these findings, the lack of mK3 expression by the virus results in the detection of more virus-immune CD8 T cells and a lower level of latency (4).Comparisons of coding sequences revealed that mK3 is highly homologous to both kK3 and kK5 gene products of Kaposi's sarcomaassociated herpesvirus (KSHV) (1, 5). The kK3, kK5, and mK3 proteins share a common topology including a highly conserved, N-terminal RING-CH domain, followed by two predicted transmembrane segments and a C-terminal domain varying in sequence and length (3, 6, 7). Immunofluorescence studies confirmed that these K3 homologs are type III membrane proteins with both N-and C termini on the cytosolic face of the ER membrane (3, 6). The RING-CH domain possesses ubiquitin E3 ligase activity as demonstrated by its ability to carry out autoubiquitination in vitro and substrate ubiquitionation in cells (3,7,8). Additional K3 homologs are also found in poxviruses, such as M153R from myxoma virus (9). Cellular K3 homologs hav...