Inhibition of H-ras expression by the adeno-associated virus Rep78 transformation suppressor gene product.

Here the adeno-associated virus Rep78 gene product was found to inhibit the expression of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase and the bladder cancer-derived EJ-H-ras coding sequences when they were under the control of the natural cellular H-ras regulatory sequences. However, Rep78 had little or no effect on the expression of these same coding sequences when they were under the control of the regulatory sequences of the murine osteosarcoma virus long terminal repeat. These data indicate that the inhibition of H-ras by Rep78 depends upon sequences present within the cellular H-ras upstream regulatory region. Furthermore, these and earlier data indicate that Rep78 functions as an "antioncogene" or transformation suppressor gene, inhibiting H-ras as well as several viral oncogenes.