The papillomavirus transcriptional activator, E2, is involved in key functions of the viral life cycle. These include transcriptional regulation, viral DNA replication, and viral genome segregation. The transactivation domain of E2 is required for each of these functions. To identify the regions of the domain that mediate binding to mitotic chromosomes, a panel of mutations has been generated and their effect on various E2 functions has been analyzed. A structural model of the bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV1) E2 transactivation domain was generated based on its homology with the solved structure of the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) domain. This model was used to identify distinct surfaces of the domain to be targeted by point mutation to further delineate the functional region of the transactivation domain responsible for mitotic chromosome association. The mutated E2 proteins were assessed for mitotic chromosome binding and, in addition, transcriptional activation and transcriptional repression activities. Mutation of amino acids R37 and I73, which are located on a surface of the domain that in HPV16 E2 is reported to mediate self-interaction, completely eliminated mitotic chromosome binding. Mitotic chromosome binding activity was found to correlate well with the ability to interact with the cellular chromosomal associated factor Brd4, which has recently been proposed to mediate the association between BPV1 E2 and mitotic chromosomes.Papillomaviruses are small DNA viruses that infect the squamous epithelium of the skin and mucosa, causing benign tumors or papillomas (22). A key step in the viral life cycle occurs upon infection of basal epithelial cells, when the viral genome must be maintained as an extrachromosomal element to ensure persistence of the infection in dividing cells. Transient viral DNA replication requires the E2 transcriptional transactivator, the E1 helicase protein, and the origin of replication (54,55,57,61). Long-term, persistent replication requires, in addition, numerous high-affinity E2 binding sites in cis with the replication origin (47). The E2 transcriptional transactivator protein maintains the viral genomes as multicopy extrachromosomal elements by tethering them to mitotic chromosomes to ensure their nuclear retention and segregation to daughter cells (24,32,51).The E2 transactivator protein can be divided into three domains. The amino-terminal ϳ200 amino acids comprise the transactivation domain of E2, and the carboxy-terminal ϳ100 amino acids mediate DNA binding and dimerization. These domains are linked by a flexible region called the hinge. The transactivation domain and DNA binding domain are conserved among E2 proteins of different papillomaviruses, whereas the length and amino acid sequence of the hinge region vary greatly (reviewed in reference 42). The transactivation domain is critical for the segregation, DNA replication, and transcriptional regulatory functions of the E2 protein (5,41,51,58).Several groups have mapped residues important for the transactivati...