Transformation by simian virus 40 does not involve the mutational activation of p53 to an oncogenic form.

We investigated whether the p53 protein of SV40-transformed mouse cells reacted with the conformation-dependent monoclonal antibody pAb246. This antibody can usually distinguish between a p53 with anti-proliferative activity like the wild-type protein (pAb246+) and a mutated form of p53 with oncogenic activity (pAb246-). Of the 13 cell lines that were screened, 12 contained the pAb246+ form of p53 and one had the pAb246- form. We showed that SV40 did not induce an activating mutation in the p53 of this latter cell line, because the cells from which it was derived were also pAb246-. Cascade immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrated that in three SV40-transformed cell lines that were examined, all of the p53 was of the pAb246+ form making it unlikely that small amounts of pAb246- p53 were responsible for the transformation properties of these cells. We therefore concluded that SV40-mediated transformation of murine cells is not dependent on the activation of their p53 to an oncogenic form, and that, in all probability, transformation is allowed to occur in part because the anti-proliferative activity of p53 is blocked by SV40 T antigen.