Svi3: A provirus common integration site in c-myc in SL/Kh pre-B lymphomas.

Spontaneous pre-B lymphomas in SL/Kh mice occur by somatic acquisition of a provirus genome of endogenous murine leukemia virus (MuLV). Inverse PCR amplification and sequence analyses of a provirus and its host flanking fragment revealed a proviral insertion into c-myc in 3 out of 60 SL/Kh pre-B lymphomas, named Svi3 lymphomas (SL/Kh virus integration site-3). Southern blot analysis revealed that two lymphomas had clonal integration in c-myc exon 1 and the other, in the promoter region. In 2 out of 3 Svi3 lymphomas, a fusion transcript of provirus 3' long terminal repeat and c-myc and a normal full-length c-myc transcript were obtained, but in one Svi3 lymphoma, only the normal transcript was obtained. All three Svi3 lymphomas had increased c-myc expression, producing normal 67-kDa c-Myc protein. Svi3 lymphomas had more mature phenotypes in the steps of early B-cell differentiation than Svi1 lymphomas, in which c-myc expression was indirectly up-regulated by provirus integration into Stat5a.