Herpesviruses establish life-long latent infections. During latency, gammaherpesviruses, such as Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV), persist as multicopy, circularized genomes in the cell nucleus and express a small subset of viral genes. Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) is the predominant gene expressed during latent infection. The X-ray structure determination of the Latency Associated Nuclear Antigen (LANA) has revealed the site of viral DNA tethering. This work elucidates the structure of the LANA DNA binding domain and identifies a novel surface feature that is critical for viral latent infection, likely by acting through a host cell protein.
