src- and fps-containing avian sarcoma viruses transform chicken erythroid cells.
We report here that several oncogene-transducing avian sarcoma virus strains, namely Rous sarcoma virus (src), Fujinami sarcoma virus (fps), and PRCII (fps), transform avian erythroid cells in vitro and in vivo. The src- and fps-transformed erythroblasts grow in vitro for 20-30 generations, require special growth conditions, and tend to differentiate spontaneously. In these properties, they resemble erythroid cells transformed with the erbB-containing H strain of avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV-H) but differ from those transformed with AEV-ES4 (erbA, erbB), which grow under standard culture conditions and rarely differentiate spontaneously. Erythroblasts transformed with viruses carrying temperature-sensitive mutations in the src or fps oncogene and then shifted to the nonpermissive temperature in the presence of anemic serum (as a source of an erythropoietin-like factor) differentiate terminally into erythrocytes. These results demonstrate that several members of the src gene family other than erbB have the capacity to transform erythroid cells.
D000818:Animals; D001358:Avian Sarcoma Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000382:microbiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002645:Chickens; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000382:microbiology*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000382:microbiology*; D009154:Mutation; D009857:Oncogenes; D013696:Temperature