Nucleotide sequence and expression in vitro of cDNA derived from mRNA of int-1, a provirally activated mouse mammary oncogene.

The mouse int-1 gene is a putative mammary oncogene discovered as a target for transcriptionally activating proviral insertion mutations in mammary carcinomas induced by the mouse mammary tumor virus in C3H mice. We have isolated molecular clones of full- or nearly full-length cDNA transcribed from int-1 RNA (2.6 kilobases) in a virus-induced mammary tumor. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of the cDNA clones with that of the int-1 gene (A. van Ooyen and R. Nusse, Cell 39:233-240, 1984) shows the following. The coding region of the int-1 gene is composed of four exons. The splice donor and acceptor sites conform to consensus; however, at least two closely spaced polyadenylation sites are used, and the transcriptional initiation site remains ambiguous. The major open reading frame is preceded by an open frame 10 codons in length. The mRNA encodes a 41-kilodalton protein with several striking features--a strongly hydrophobic amino terminus, a cysteine-rich carboxy terminus, and four potential glycosylation sites. There are no differences in nucleotide sequence between the known exons of the normal and a provirally activated allele. The length of the deduced open reading frame was further confirmed by in vitro translation of RNA transcribed from the cDNA clones with SP6 RNA polymerase.