Integration and expression of viral DNA in cells transformed by host range mutants of adenovirus type 5.

Group I host range (hr) mutants of adenovirus type 5 are unable to transform rat embryo or rat embryo brain cells but induce an abnormal transformation of baby rat kidney cells. We established several transformed rat kidney cell lines and characterized them with respect to the transformed phenotype and the structure of the integrated viral DNA. The hr mutant-transformed cells, unlike wild-type virus transformants, were fibroblastic rather than epithelial, failed to grow in soft agar, and were also less tumorigenic in nude mice. Studies on the structure of the integrated viral DNA sequences showed that hr-transformed cells always contained the left end of the adenovirus DNA, but the size of the integrated DNA fragment varied among different lines, and a high percentage of the lines contained the entire viral genome colinearly integrated. The patterns of integration were maintained after prolonged growth in culture and after subcloning. Attempts to rescue infectious virus from lines which contained the entire genome were unsuccessful. Using immunoprecipitation and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, we analyzed the viral proteins expressed in hr-transformed cells. Results of these studies indicated that, like wild type-transformed cells, hr transformants expressed E1B proteins of molecular weight 58,000 and 19,000.