Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1987 Mar;61(3):693-700.
doi: 10.1128/JVI.61.3.693-700.1987.

Disease specificity of nondefective Friend and Moloney murine leukemia viruses is controlled by a small number of nucleotides

Y Li, E Golemis, J W Hartley, N Hopkins

Disease specificity of nondefective Friend and Moloney murine leukemia viruses is controlled by a small number of nucleotides

Y Li et al. J Virol. 1987 Mar.

Abstract

Moloney murine leukemia virus induces T cell lymphomas after injection into NFS mice, whereas the nondefective Friend virus induces erythroleukemias. Previous studies showed that sequences encompassing the viral transcriptional signals in U3 are the primary determinant of this phenotype in recombinants between these two viruses. To more precisely identify the sequences responsible, we constructed additional recombinants, within U3, between Friend and Moloney viruses and assayed these recombinants for for their disease specificity. We found that a fragment 191 bases long that included the direct repeat (enhancer) region plus 22 nucleotides to its 3' side from Friend virus was sufficient to convert Moloney virus to a virus that induced only erythroleukemias. A 171-base-long fragment of Moloney virus, including just the direct repeat, converted Friend virus to a virus that induced primarily lymphomas (about 85% of mice injected). We also constructed Moloney and Friend virus variants with one rather than two copies of the enhancer element. These viruses retained their disease specificity, although they exhibited a marked increase in the latent period of disease induction. Together the results suggest that 25 or fewer nucleotide differences, lying within and also just 3' of the direct repeat, are the primary determinant of the distinct disease specificities of nondefective Friend and Moloney viruses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. J Cell Physiol. 1968 Oct;72(2):141-8 - PubMed
    1. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Feb;7(2):887-97 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1970 Jun 27;226(5252):1209-11 - PubMed
    1. Virology. 1970 Dec;42(4):1136-9 - PubMed
    1. Anal Biochem. 1972 Sep;49(1):184-97 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources