Evidence that the AKR Murine-Leukemia-Virus Genome is Complete in DNA of the High-Virus AKR Mouse and Incomplete in the DNA of the ``Virus-Negative'' NIH Mouse

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1974-01, Vol.71 (1), p.167-171
• Main Authors: Chattopadhyay, Sisir K., Lowy, Douglas R., Teich, Natalie M., Levine, Arthur S., Rowe, Wallace P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Base Sequence; Biological Sciences: Biochemistry; Cell Line; Cell lines; Cots; DNA; DNA - analysis; DNA - metabolism; DNA probes; DNA, Single-Stranded - analysis; DNA, Viral - analysis; DNA, Viral - metabolism; Genomes; Kinetics; Leukemia Virus, Murine; Mice; Mice, Inbred AKR; Mice, Inbred Strains; Molecular Weight; Murine leukemia virus; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Phosphorus Radioisotopes; RNA; RNA - metabolism; RNA probes; RNA, Viral - metabolism; Tritium; Viruses
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.71.1.167

The AKR mouse has a high titer of murine leukemia virus early in life, and virus-negative cells derived from embryos of this mouse strain can be activated to yield murine leukemia virus by treatment with 5-iododeoxyuridine. In contrast to this high-virus strain, the NIH Swiss mouse has a low incidence of leukemia and no murine leukemia virus has been isolated from it (virus-negative). We have investigated this difference between AKR and NIH mice by examining the sequences specific for murine leukemia virus in nucleic acids of these mice. A single-stranded viral-DNA probe synthesized in vitro using murine-leukemia-virus from the AKR mouse contains at least 87% of the sequences present in the 70S viral RNA; most of these sequences are in proportions similar to their content in the 70S RNA. Using this probe in nucleic acid hybridization experiments, we have shown that NIH-mouse-cell DNA and AKR-mouse-cell DNA differ with respect to sequences specific for AKR murine-leukemia-virus: NIH-mouse-cell DNA lacks some of the virus-specific sequences present in AKR-mouse-cell DNA, and there are two distinct sets of virus-specific sequences in AKR-mouse-cell DNA, whereas there is only one set in NIH-mouse-cell DNA. RNA from virus-negative AKR-mouse cells grown in tissue culture contains some, but not all, virus-specific RNA sequences; however, within 48 hr after initiating treatment of these cells with 5-iododeoxyuridine, the complete viral genome is represented in cellular RNA.