Presence in Leukemic Cells of Avian Myeloblastosis Virus-Specific DNA Sequences Absent in Normal Chicken Cells

Abstract

(3)H-labeled 35S RNA from purified avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) was exhaustively hybridized with an excess of normal chicken DNA to remove all viral RNA sequences which are complementary to DNA from uninfected cells. The [(3)H]RNA which failed to hybridize was isolated by hydroxylapatite column chromatography which separates DNA-RNA hybrids from single-stranded [(3)H]RNA. The residual RNA hybridized to leukemic chicken DNA but did not rehybridize with normal chicken DNA. This demonstrates conclusively that DNA from AMV-induced leukemic cells contain viral-specific sequences which are absent in DNA from normal cells.