title: The role of the transforming A gene of SV40 in the mutagenic activity of the virus.
abstract: The mutagenic activity of the tsA239 mutant of SV40 which synthetizes a defective T antigen at 40 degrees C was investigated in Chinese hamster cells under permissive and nonpermissive temperature. At 33 degrees C the virus increased the yield of 6-mercaptopurine-resistant colonies after 2 days expression time by a factor of 1.6-4 as compared with the control and raised the frequency of aberrant metaphases after the same time by a factor of 1.9-3.4. In the same experiments, with the same initially infected population of Chinese hamster cells, at 40 degrees C tsA SV40 did not induce either gene mutations or chromosome aberrations at the same early stage after infection. Presumably the activity of the A gene of SV40 is necessary not only for the transforming but also for the mutagenic effect of the virus.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005814:Genes, Viral; D015122:Mercaptopurine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009154:Mutation; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015122:Mercaptopurine