ICP4 of herpes simplex virus is responsible for the activation of viral transcription during infection. It also efficiently activates and represses transcription in vitro depending on the promoter context. The contacts made between ICP4 and the cellular proteins that result in activated transcription have not been identified. The inability of ICP4 to activate transcription with TATA-binding protein in place of TFIID and the requirement for an initiator element for efficient ICP-4-activated transcription suggest that coactivators, such as TBP-associated factors, are involved (B. Gu and N. DeLuca, J. Virol. 68:7953-7965, 1994). In this study we showed that ICP4 activates transcription in vitro using an immunopurified TFIID, indicating that TBP-associated factors may be a sufficient subset of coactivators for ICP4-activated transcription. Similar to results seen in vivo, the presence of the ICP4 C-terminal region (amino acids 774 to 1298) was important for activation in vitro. With epitope-tagged ICP4 molecules in immunoaffinity experiments, it was shown that the C-terminal region was also required for ICP4 to interact with TFIID present in a crude transcription factor fraction. In the same assay, ICP4 was unable to interact with the basal transcription factors, TFIIB, TFIIE, TFIIF, and TFIIH and RNA polymerase II. ICP4 could also interact with TBP, independent of the C-terminal region. However, reflective of the interaction between ICP4 and TFIID, the ICP4 C-terminal region was required for an interaction with FAF250-TBP complexes and with TAF250 alone. Therefore, the interfaces or conformation of TBP mediating the interaction between ICP4 and TBP in solution is probably masked when TBP is bound to TAF250. With a series of mutant ICP4 molecules purified from herpes simplex virus-infected cells, it was shown that ICP4 molecules that can bind DNA and interact with TAF250 could activate transcription. Taken together, these results demonstrate that ICP4 interaction with TFIID involves the TAF250 molecule and the C-terminal region of ICP4 and that this interaction is part of the mechanism by which ICP4 activates transcription.