Suppression of the transformed phenotype in hybrids of human T-cell leukemia virus type I tax-transformed rat fibroblasts and normal human fibroblasts.
We have isolated and characterized hybrid cell lines derived from Rat-2 cells transformed by the human T-cell leukemia virus type-I (HTLV-I) Tax protein fused with WI-38 normal human fibroblasts. These hybrid cells (designated as RTW cells) showed contact inhibition after growing to confluency, loss of anchorage-independent growth in 0.33% soft agar, and inability to form tumors in athymic mice. Assays of transcription from the HTLV-I long terminal repeat (LTR) demonstrated that Tax-mediated trans-activation of its own promoter was fully maintained in RTW cells, implying that functional Tax is expressed in these cells. Our results indicate that WI-38 cells contain a suppressor gene(s) which can block Tax-mediated cell transformation without interfering its trans-activation of the HTLV-I LTR.
Inoue
H
H
Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Japan.
Yamaoka
S
S
Imamura
M
M
Hatanaka
M
M
D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002455:Cell Division; D002459:Cell Fusion; D002460:Cell Line; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005347:Fibroblasts; D015870:Gene Expression; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D006822:Hybrid Cells; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D014162:Transfection
D016356:Gene Products, tax; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase