Structure and Expression of the Abelson Murine Leukemia Virus Genome and Its Relationship to a Normal Cell Gene (original) (raw)

1. D. Baltimore,
2. A. Shields,
3. G. Otto,
4. S. Goff,
5. P. Besmer,
6. O. Witte, and
7. N. Rosenberg*
8. Department of Biology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139;*Department of Pathology and Cancer Research Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111

Excerpt

A wide range of viruses are able to induce leukemia in mice (Gross 1972). These include both inherited viruses found in certain strains of mice and viruses that have arisen during laboratory experimentation. Many of the viruses cause disease after a long latent period and there is reason to believe that interactions between the infecting viruses and either cellular or viral genetic information endogenous to the mouse are involved in the development of the leukemogenic agent.

One laboratory-derived virus, the Abelson murine leukemia virus (Ab-MuLV), causes leukemia within a few weeks after infection of newborn mice (Abelson and Rabstein 1970; Rosenberg and Baltimore 1980). This ability suggested that Ab-MuLV might be able to directly transform hematopoietic cells, and this possibility has been substantiated by the demonstration that bone marrow cells can be transformed into tumor cells by in vitro infection with Ab-MuLV (Rosenberg et al. 1975; Rosenberg and Baltimore 1976)...