Persistence of the viral genome in adenovirus type 12-infected hamster cells.

Induction of T antigen by adenovirus type 12 was studied in growing and growth-inhibited cultures of the Nil-2 line of Syrian hamster cells. At a viral input multiplicity of 10, neoantigen was present in 100% of the cells by 24 hr. T antigen gradually disappeared in descendants of these cells so that 2 weeks after infection only 1% gave specific immunofluorescence. When cellular replication was prevented by addition of fluorodeoxyuridine, T antigen persisted in all cells for the 2-week period. Upon infection of growing cultures with purified (3)H-labeled adenovirus type 12 and autoradiographic analysis of the cells at various times thereafter, a gradual reduction in labeled nuclear loci was noted which paralleled the decrease in T antigen-containing cells. In nongrowing cultures, no change in labeled loci was noted. Correlation of T antigen and labeled loci revealed that fluorescent cells contained, on the average, about 10 times more silver grains than nonfluorescent cells. All of 92 preselected fluorescent cells showed labeled loci, whereas, of 100 nonfluorescent cells, 18 were free of silver grains. The implications of these findings are discussed.