C-Fos and Polyoma Middle T Oncogene Expression in Transgenic Mice and Embryonal Stem Cell Chimaeras

Abstract

It is widely accepted that oncogene products play an important role in the genetic control of cellular differentiation and development. Many efforts are directed towards understanding the function of the proto-oncogenes (c-onc, the cellular homologues of retroviral transforming genes, v-onc), which are often expressed in embryos and adult tissues in a remarkable tissue-, cell type- and stage specific form (for review see Kahn and Graf, 1986; Adamson, 1987). The role of c-onc genes in growth control is supported by the notion that the products of several oncogenes are either growth factors or growth-factor receptors (Bishop, 1987). A large number of important studies on oncogenes were performed in cell culture systems; however, they give only limited insights into oncogene function in the context of the whole organism. Our studies focus on investigating the role oncogenes have in mouse development as well as in the differentiation of multipotent stem cells. We are using transgenic mice and embryonal stem (ES) cells as powerful systems to test the possible role of oncogenes in vivo (Wagner and Stewart, 1986). Here we report our results on c-fos and polyoma middle T oncogene expression in transgenic mice and ES cell chimaeras.