SV40 recombinants carrying rabbit beta-globin gene coding sequences.

We have constructed and propagated two SV40 recombinants in which different portions of the viral late gene region are replaced by a rabbit beta-globin coding sequence derived from a cloned cDNA (Maniatis et al., 1976). One of these recombinants, which retains the promoter, leader and intervening sequences for a viral late mRNA, directs the synthesis of a stable SV40-globin hybrid transcript. Using a sensitive radioimmunoassay, we have shown that this globin RNA is translated in infected monkey cells. A second recombinant, which retains the late region promoter but lacks the RNA splicing region, produces neither a stable globin transcript nor any detectable beta-globin. These experiments indicate that some sequence within a 500 bp SV40 segment, presumably the splicing region, is required for the accumulation of stable mRNA. They also demonstrate how hybrid transducing viruses can be used both to characterize viral regulatory sequences and to produce new gene products in cultured cells.