Studies of the Interrelationship of Chicken Leukosis Virus and Host Cell Genomes by RNA-DNA Hybridization

Abstract

RNA tumor viruses appear to replicate and to modify host cell behavior through the agency of proviral DNA inserted into the genome of infected cells (Temin 1964). The presence of viral sequences in host DNA presents an opportunity to apply the technology of nucleic acid association reactions to such problems as the measurement of viral genes and gene products in cells-an opportunity which has been seized with increasing frequency. We will focus here on our attempts to measure genetic relationships between a class of avian oncorna-viruses and their representation in host genome. A number of techniques exist for detecting viral DNA sequences in cells; all involve annealing reactions between viral genome (or in vitro prepared genome copies) and cell DNA, and all have advantages and limitations. We have relied primarily upon direct hybridization of viral genomic RNA with cellular DNA under conditions where putative proviral DNA sequences are in at...