Mechanisms for the generation of src-deletion mutants and recovered sarcoma viruses: identification of viral sequences involved in src deletions and in recombination with c-src sequences.

The precise src deletions in six transformation-defective (td) deletion mutants derived from the Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus were determined by sequence analysis. Examination of the parental viral sequences neighboring the junctions of deletions in these td mutants revealed that these regions contained either directly repeated or inverted complementary sequences ranging from 9 to 28 nucleotides. Five td mutants were found to contain deletions flanked by directly repeated sequences, of which the 3' direct repeat was retained whereas the 5' direct repeat was deleted in the resulting td viral RNA. In the deletions of two td mutants where inverted complementary sequences were present at junctions of the deletions, both copies of the inverted complementary sequence were deleted in the td viral RNA. It is proposed from these observations that deletions of these mutants have been generated during the synthesis of minus-strand viral DNA by reverse transcriptase by jumping over a sequence flanked by direct repeats or by skipping a stem-and-loop structure formed via inverted complementary sequences on the viral RNA template. Data provide further information on the sequences in the td viral genome that are required for the generation of recovered sarcoma viruses (rASVs) by recombination with c-src. Sequence data of td viruses revealed that retaining as few as 82 nucleotides of the 3' src coding sequence is sufficient, whereas retaining as much as one-third of the 5' src but none of the 3' src coding sequences is not sufficient, for the generation of rASVs. Those that generate replication-competent rASVs retain, in addition to the 3' src region, a portion of the 5' src and/or its immediate upstream sequence that is homologous to exon 1 of the c-src DNA. These two sequence domains apparently provided 5' and 3' homologous regions for recombination between td viral genome and c-src DNA resulting in nondefective rASVs. Td109, which was shown previously to generate only replication-defective rASVs, retains 296 nucleotides of the 3' src sequence but lacks all the 5' src and 316 nucleotides of its immediate upstream region. It is concluded that the 5' src coding sequence and its immediate upstream region are not essential for the generation of rASVs. However, retaining a portion of those sequences is required for the generation of replication-competent rASVs.