Introduction, stable integration, and controlled expression of a chimeric adenovirus gene whose product is toxic to the recipient human cell.

The DNA-binding protein (DBP) encoded by human adenoviruses is a multifunctional polypeptide which plays a central role in regulating the expression of the viral genes. To gain a better understanding of the relationships between the various functions provided by DBP, an extensive collection of DBP mutants is essential. To this end we have constructed several permissive human cell lines which contain and express the DBP gene at high levels to allow propagation of otherwise lethal, nonrecoverable mutants of DBP. Because DBP is toxic to human cells, cell lines were constructed by using a vector in which the DBP gene is under the control of the dexamethasone-inducible promoter of the mouse mammary tumor virus. The low basal levels of DBP synthesis in the absence of dexamethasone allows isolation and propagation of these cells. Addition of dexamethasone enhances DBP production 50- to 200-fold, and within 8 h its synthesis from the single integrated copy of the chimeric gene is 5 to 15% of that observed during peak DBP synthesis in infected human cells in which hundreds of copies of the DBP gene serve as templates. At the nonpermissive temperature, adenovirus mutants with ts lesions in the DBP gene replicate their DNAs, express their late genes, and form infectious viral particles in these DBP+ cell lines but not in the parental HeLa cells.