Biologically active proviral clone of myeloblastosis-associated virus type 1: implications for the genesis of avian myeloblastosis virus.

A biologically active myeloblastosis-associated virus (MAV) provirus was cloned from a bacteriophage recombinant library constructed from leukemic chicken myeloblast DNA. The restriction endonuclease map of this clone was consistent with that of a type 1 MAV (MAV-1). Interference assays of virus recovered from cultured chicken embryo fibroblasts after DNA transfection established that the provirus was infectious and confirmed that it belonged to avian retrovirus subgroup A (type 1). Antipeptide antibodies raised against the env-encoded carboxyl terminus of p48myb, the transforming protein of avian myeloblastosis virus, specifically immunoprecipitated the gp37env from quail cells transfected with MAV-1 proviral DNA but not from cells infected with MAV-2. This suggests that MAV-1 rather than MAV-2 is the progenitor helper virus from which avian myeloblastosis virus arose by the transduction of cellular proto-oncogene sequences.