Viral transduction of host genes in naturally occurring feline T-cell leukaemias: transduction of myc and a T-cell antigen receptor beta-chain gene.

Abstract

Feline leukaemia virus has been a particularly useful tool in cancer research since many of the naturally occurring tumours associated with this virus group have yielded recombinant retroviruses containing hostderived oncogenic information. The prevalence of transduction as an oncogenic mechanism was seen first in multicentric fibrosarcoma, a relatively rare tumour in FeLV-infected cats (Hardy et al. 1982; Besmer 1984). In a significant percentage of cases of this disease, oncogene-containing feline sarcoma viruses have been identified. More recently, we and others have found that in the more common FeLV-associated neoplasm, thymic lymphosarcoma, viral capture of the c-myc gene can occur (Neil et al. 1984; Levy et al. 1984; Mullins et al. 1984). Since the oncogenes carried by feline sarcoma viruses do not include myc, these reports provided the first evidence that myc may be a target for oncogenic activation by FeLV.KeywordsViral TransductionFeline Leukaemia VirusAntigen Receptor GeneProviral InsertionAntigen Receptor Gene RearrangementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.