Suppression of tumorigenicity in clones of hamster cells transformed with avian sarcoma virus.

Hamster cells transformed with avian sarcoma virus, which had been selected for resistance to 8-azaguanine, were cloned. Several single cell clones were isolated which differed significantly in their tumorigenicity in comparison to the parental highly tumorigenic cells. The nontumorigenic cell clones contained rescuable avian virus. Both parental and resistant cells possessed transformed phenotype. Comparative studies with parental highly tumorigenic cells and nontumorigenic cell clones failed to detect any difference in the expression of p60src, in this phosphorylation and in phosphokinase activity. The isolated nontumorigenic cells represent cell mutants in which the viral src gene is controlled by a suppressor gene. The cells might be useful for further characterization of a putative antioncogene.