Transduction of a cellular oncogene: the genesis of Rous sarcoma virus.

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Abstract
The oncogene of Rous sarcoma virus ([RSV] v-src) arose by transduction of a cellular gene (c-src). In an effort to explore the mechanism of transduction, the splice acceptor site used in the genesis of mRNA for v-src was identified, an equivalent site was shown to be used in the splicing of mRNA for c-src, and the nucleotide sequence was determined from the boundaries of homology between v-src and c-src. The data indicate that only a portion of c-src is represented within v-src. The leftward recombination between the genome of the transducing virus and c-src occurred in an intron of the cellular gene, and v-src is in part a spliced version of the corresponding portion of c-src. Nucleotide sequences represented once in the genome of the transducing virus become duplicated to flank v-src. These findings indicate that the first step in transducing viral genome and c-src and otherwise support the prevailing model for transduction by retroviruses. The carboxyl termini of the proteins encoded by v-src and c-src differ appreciably. An unidentified domain of 127 or 128 nucleotides is located at different positions in the genomes of 2 strains of RSV and gives evidence of being a foreign element that entered the virual genomes by genetic transposition independent of the transduction of src.