Figure 1

The genetic switch. This illustration describes the regulatory mechanisms of the modeled switch between the C promoter (Cp) and the Q promoter (Qp) in Epstein-Barr virus. Transcripts from Cp are spliced into bicistronic mRNAs coding either for EBNA-1 (red) or one of the other EBNA proteins (blue), while transcripts from Qp only codes for EBNA-1. EBNA-1 itself acts as a negative regulator of Qp, binding downstream of the transcription start, and positively regulates transcription from Cp through binding upstream to the Family of Repeats sequence (FR). FR bind also Oct-2 molecules (green), in complex with Grg/TLE, acting as inhibitory regulators.