Basal levels of max are sufficient for the cotransformation of C3H10T1/2 cells by ras and myc.

The ras and myc oncoproteins cooperate to transform the established murine fibroblast cell line C3H10T1/2. To determine the impact of overexpression of the myc oncoprotein on the phenotype of C3H10T1/2 cells, two C3H10T1/2-myc clonal cell lines, SVc-myc 11A and myc neo 13A, were isolated and characterized. Although both C3H10T1/2-myc cell lines are morphologically indistinguishable from wild-type C3H10T1/2 cells and possess growth properties similar to those of C3H10T1/2 cells, each displays a predisposition to transformation following transfection with the activated form of the human H-ras gene. In C3H10T1/2 cells overexpressing the v-myc or H-ras oncogenes, the levels of mRNA encoding max, the recently identified oligomerization partner of myc, remain unchanged, suggesting that the endogenous level of max in C3H10T1/2 cells is sufficient for a high frequency of transformation by ras and myc. Based on these studies, the C3H10T1/2-myc clonal cell lines we describe are suitable model systems for examining the molecular role of the myc protein in transformation and for characterizing additional factors that synergize with myc in multistep transformation.