Cooperation of SV40 large T antigen and the cellular protein p53 in maintenance of cell transformation.

We analysed large T antigen expression and metabolic stabilisation of the cellular protein p53 in cells of a matched pair of SV40 tsA mutant (tsA58) N-type or A-type transformants, respectively. At the permissive growth temperature (32 degrees C), cells of both transformants, like SV40 wild-type transformed cells, were phenotypically transformed and expressed large T antigen, as well as metabolically stable p53 (both complexed and free p53). At the nonpermissive growth temperature (39 degrees C), cells of the N-type transformant reverted to a normal phenotype, whereas cells of the A-type transformant still displayed a transformed phenotype. Under these growth conditions, the mutant large T antigens in both cell types were no longer able to complex p53 (both in vivo and in vitro), but the metabolic stabilities of the free p53 in these cells correlated with their phenotypes: p53 in cells of the N-type transformant was rapidly degraded, whereas it was metabolically stable in cells of the A-type transformant. This difference in p53 stability correlated with an in vivo functional difference between the mutant large T antigens at the nonpermissive growth temperature: large T antigen in cells of the N-type transformant no longer stably associated with the cellular chromatin and the nuclear matrix, but accumulated in the nucleoplasm. In contrast, large T antigen in cells of the A-type transformant at least partially had retained this ability. Maintenance of SV40 cell transformation thus seems to require both a functional large T antigen and a metabolically stabilised p53.