Early region 1B 55K (E1B-55K) from adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) is a multifunctional regulator of lytic infection and contributes in vitro to complete cell transformation of primary rodent cells in combination with Ad5 E1A. Inhibition of p53 activated transcription plays a key role in processes by which E1B-55K executes its oncogenic potential. Nevertheless, additional functions of E1B-55K or further protein interactions with cellular factors of DNA repair, transcription, and apoptosis, including Mre11, PML, and Daxx, may also contribute to the transformation process. In line with previous results, we performed mutational analysis to define a Daxx interaction motif within the E1B-55K polypeptide. The results from these studies showed that E1B-55K/Daxx binding is not required for inhibition of p53-mediated transactivation or binding and degradation of cellular factors (p53/Mre11). Surprisingly, these mutants lost the ability to degrade Daxx and showed reduced transforming potential in primary rodent cells. In addition, we observed that E1B-55K lacking the SUMO-1 conjugation site (SCS/K104R) was sufficient for Daxx interaction but no longer capable of E1B-55K-dependent proteasomal degradation of the cellular factor Daxx. These results, together with the observation that E1B-55K SUMOylation is required for efficient transformation, provides evidence for the idea that SUMO-1-conjugated E1B-55K-mediated degradation of Daxx plays a key role in adenoviral oncogenic transformation. We assume that the viral protein contributes to cell transformation through the modulation of Daxx-dependent pathways. This further substantiates the assumption that further mechanisms for efficient transformation of primary cells can be separated from functions required for the inhibition of p53-stimulated transcription.Previous reports demonstrated that DNA tumor virus genomes preferentially target subnuclear host cell structures called promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) immediately after infection. These domains represent sites of active viral gene transcription and most are also presumably sites of oncogenic processes (6,44,45,66,113). As we and others reported previously, the transcriptional repressor Daxx (death domain-associated protein) is a principal component of the PML-NBs and a negative regulator of adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) replication in productive infection (94,106).Daxx is a ubiquitously expressed vertebrate polypeptide that mediates a variety of cellular functions (115). Thus, it has been implicated to modulate principle aspects of apoptosis, as well as repression of basal transcription. Thus far, many factors known to play critical roles in controlling programmed cell death and gene expression have been shown to associate with Daxx, including the serine/threonine-specific protein kinases HIPK1, HIPK3, and ZIPK (40,48,84,98); the specific transcription factors p14 ARF , Ets-1, Pax3, Pax5, NF-B, and Smad4 (8,18,42,60,78); and the chromatin-associated factors HDAC2, H2A, H2B, H3, H4, Dek, HIPK2, and ATRX (41,102,114). Ini...