title: A 79 amino acid oncogene is responsible for human cytomegalovirus mtrII induced malignant transformation.
abstract: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) morphological transforming region (mtr)II is the only HCMV mtr that was retained and expressed in transformed mouse or rat cells. The minimal transforming region has previously been shown to be within a 980-bp BanII/XhoI subfragment which encodes three open reading frames (ORF) of 34, 79, and 83 amino acids. This report provides definitive evidence that the 79-aa ORF is responsible for mtrII mediated tumorigenic transformation. The 79-aa ORF, subcloned into a mammalian expression vector, pCHC79orf, induced morphologic transformation of NIH 3T3 cells. These transformed cells expressed 79-aa ORF specific transcripts and were tumorigenic when injected into nude mice. A construct containing a triple termination linker inserted after codon 24 failed to transform NIH 3T3 cells to tumorigenicity even though 79-aa ORF specific transcripts were expressed. Furthermore, when the triple termination linker was inserted after codon 49, tumorigenic transformation still occurred. These results demonstrate that the 79-aa ORF is the oncogene within HCMV mtrII and that the first 49-aa are sufficient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doniger
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004279:DNA, Viral; D005814:Genes, Viral; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000209:etiology; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral; D009857:Oncogenes; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010641:Phenotype; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; C087714:ORF 79 protein, Human cytomegalovirus; D015513:Oncogene Proteins; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins