Properties of permissive monkey cells transformed by UV-irradiated simian virus 40

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
African green monkey [kidney] cells (CV1 line) were infected with UV-irradiated SV-40 and permissive lines of stably transformed cells were established. These cell lines display the SV-40 T[tumor]-antigen and the growth characteristics typical of nonpermissive transformed cells (e.g., reduced cell density inhibition, reduced serum dependence, ability to overgrow normal cells and colony formation in soft agar). The level of permissiveness to superinfecting SV-40 is fully comparable with that of nontransformed CV1 and BSC-1 lines. The transformed monkey lines also support SV-40 plaque production under agar. The transformed permissive cells contain, on a average, 1-2 SV-40 genome equivalents, and the majority of the viral sequences are associated with the high-molecular-weight cellular DNA. No spontaneous production of infectious SV-40 was observed. The transformed permissive monkey cells failed to support the replication of SV-40 tsA mutants at the restrictive temperature. The gene A product may have functions for transformation and initiation of viral DNA synthesis and only the former function is apparently expressed in the transformed permissive monkey cells.