Organization and expression of the left third of the genome of adenovirus.

Abstract

The regions of the human adenoviral genome associated with the process of oncogenesis have been identified using several approaches. Analysis of the viral DNAs contained in different lines of cells transformed by virus has demonstrated that retention of the leftmost 14% of the genome is sufficient for the maintenance of the transformed growth properties of these cells (Gallimore et al. 1974). The adenoviral mRNAs expressed in transformed cell lines are similar to those expressed from these DNA sequences during the early phase of the productive infection (Flint et al. 1975). The left end of the viral DNA contains at least two genes necessary for transformation, since two complementation groups of host-range mutants that map within this region (Frost and Williams 1978) are both defective for transformation (Graham et al. 1978). Transfection of cells with fragments of viral DNA has provided a direct means of determining the minimum amount of viral...