Cytoplasmic DNA synthesis induced by RNA tumor viruses.

Infection of mouse embryo cells with two strains of murine sarcoma virus and one strain of murine leukemia virus was followed rapidly by synthesis of DNA in the cytoplasm. Persistently infected cells have not shown such synthesis, and ultraviolet-irradiated virus did not induce DNA synthesis. This new DNA presumably represents an intermediate in the virus replication cycle specified by the virion DNA polymerase(s). Failure to observe cytoplasmic DNA synthesis in persistently infected cells suggests, in keeping with the results of inhibitor experiments, that the new "viral" DNA becomes associated with cellular DNA in some form of stable interaction.