Transforming Genes of Retroviruses (original) (raw)

1. P. H. Duesberg
2. Department of Molecular Biology and Virus Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Excerpt

Retroviruses are the only known class of viruses that carry transforming onc genes that are without essential replicative or structural function. In other words, onc genes are nonessential from a viral point of view. The function, origin, purpose, and even number of viral onc genes are still largely oncologic terra incognita, but their genetic structure has become a field of active experimentation. It is the purpose of this paper to develop the image of viral onc genes that we had on the eve of the 44th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on viral oncogenes. The more generic term, viral oncogenes, was introduced in 1969 (Huebner and Todaro 1969), and later the term onc gene was adopted specifically for the transforming genes of retroviruses (Baltimore 1975). The discussion will focus on two of the best-studied groups of the retroviruses (Fenner 1976)—the avian RNA tumor viruses, whose prototype is Rous sarcoma virus (RSV),...