Characterization of reticuloendotheliosis virus-transformed avian T-lymphoblastoid cell lines infected with Marek's disease virus.

The expression of Marek's disease virus (MDV) transcripts and protein products was investigated in reticuloendotheliosis virus-transformed avian T-lymphoblastoid cell line RECC-CU91, which was superinfected with MDV. The presence of MDV in the superinfected cell line, renamed RECC-CU210, was demonstrated by Southern hybridization with 32P-labeled BamHI-H and -B fragments of the BamHI MDV DNA library. Examination of RECC-CU210 for the expression of MDV-specific RNA transcripts encoded by the internal repeat long (IRL), internal repeat short (IRS), and unique short (US) regions of the MDV genome revealed two small transcripts of 0.6 and 0.7 kb. These transcripts were mapped to the IRL and IRS regions, respectively. In contrast, RECC-CU211, which was developed through transfection of CU210 with the BamHI-A fragment of MDV, expressed an additional nine transcripts from the IRL, IRS, and US regions. CU211 but not CU210 also expressed a complex of polypeptides of 40, 38, and 24 kDa, identified by monoclonal antibodies as MDV-specific phosphoproteins. The 38-kDa phosphoprotein is likely to be pp38, an early viral protein that maps within the IRL region of the MDV genome. These findings suggest that genes located within the transfected BamHI-A fragment transactivated a number of genes located in the IRL region of the MDV genome.