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Marek's disease virus (MDV) is an acute transforming alphaherpesvirus that causes T-cell lymphomas in chickens. We previously reported the identification of a putative oncogene, meq, that is encoded only by the oncogenic serotype of MDV. The gene product, Meq, is a latent protein that is consistently expressed in MDV-transformed lymphoblastoid cells and tumor cells. Meq has a bZIP (basic leucine zipper) structure resembling the family of Jun/Fos. The mechanism whereby Meq transforms T cells remains poorly understood. In this study, we explored the properties of Meq as a transcriptional factor. We analyzed Meq's dimerization partners and its target genes in MSB-1, an MDV-transformed T-cell line. By using in vitro assays, we first demonstrated Meq's potential to dimerize with a variety of bZIP proteins. We then identified c-Jun as the primary dimerization partner of Meq. Both are found to be colocalized in the …