The Isolation and Characterization of the Blym-1 Transforming Gene

Abstract

The study of the genetic and molecular events which are involved in tumor development has been stimulated by the observation of discrete genes with oncogenic potential. Such genes have been detected in the genomes of acutely transforming retroviruses which induce tumors in susceptible hosts within a relatively short latent period (reviewed by Cooper, 1982). The mutation or deletion of such genes from the retroviral genome results in their loss of tumorigenicity. In addition, the ability of subgenomic fragments of retroviral DNA to induce the morphological transformation of recipient cells by transfection has provided further evidence for their role in neoplastic diseases (Anderson et al., 1979; Blair et al., 1980; Chang et al., 1980; Copeland et al., 1980; Barbacid, 1981). Sequences homologous to retroviral transforming genes have been detected in normal cellular DNA, suggesting that these sequences were acquired during the evolution of the viruses (Bishop, 1981), The first evidence that cellular DNA from neoplasms could efficiently transform recipient cells was reported by Shih et al. in 19 79 who showed that the high molecular weight DNA of chemically transformed mouse fibroblasts could transform other mouse cells by transfection.