Deletions within the transformation-specific RNA sequences of acute leukemia virus MC29 give rise to partially transformation-defective mutants.

The viral RNAs of three nonconditional mutants of avian myelocytomatosis virus MC29 were analyzed. These mutants, which were originally isolated from the quail producer line Q10 and were designated 10A, 10C, and 10H, have lost most of the ability to transform hematopoietic cells in vitro and to induce tumors in vivo, but they still transform cultured fibroblasts with the same efficiency as wild-type (wt) MC29. Electrophoretic analyses showed that the mutant genomic RNAs were smaller than the 5.7-kilobase genome of wt MC29; the genomes of mutants 10A, 10C, and 10H were about 5.5, 5.3, and 5.1 kilobases long, respectively. Analyses of the transformation-specific sequences of these mutant RNAs by a combination of T(1) oligonucleotide fingerprinting and hybridization with cDNA from the transformation-specific sequences myc of wt MC29 or competition hybridization including wt MC29 RNA revealed that deletions of myc-specific sequences had occurred. The deletions in all three mutants overlapped, since they all had lost one particular myc-specific oligonucleotide. In agreement with the size of the genomic RNAs, mutants 10C and 10H had lost two additional myc oligonucleotides, and mutant 10A contained a modified myc oligonucleotide. The locations of the deletions were deduced from comparisons with previously established oligonucleotide maps of several members of the MC29 subgroup of acute leukemia viruses and by hybridization of wt and mutant RNAs to molecularly cloned subgenomic fragments of wt MC29 proviral DNA, representing the 5' and 3' domains of the myc sequence. We found that the deleted sequences represented overlapping internal segments of the myc sequence and that the borders of myc with the partial complements of the virion genes gag and env appeared to be conserved in mutant and wt MC29 RNAs. The correlation between the altered transforming potential for hematopoietic cells and the partial deletion of myc in the mutant RNAs provided direct genetic evidence for the involvement of myc in oncogenesis. However, the unaffected efficiency of these mutants in fibroblast transformation suggested that the deleted sequences are not essential for the fibroblast-transforming potential of the onc gene of MC29.