Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Replication-competent retroviral vectors for expressing genes in avian cells in vitro and in vivo

  • Protocol
  • Published:
Molecular Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Replication-competent retroviral vectors based on Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) are becoming increasingly popular for expressing genes in both primary cell cultures and embryonic chick tissuesin ovo. In this article, we review the features of RSV and its life cycle that make it suitable for use as a vector. We describe the design and use of the RCAS and RCAS(BP) series of vectors, which are currently the most widely used RSV-based vectors, illustrating both their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we outline laboratory protocols suitable for the handling of these retroviral vectors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Miller, A. D. (1992) Retroviral vectors.Curr. Topics Microbiol. Immunol. 158, 1–24.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Frank, E. and Sanes, J. R. (1991) Lineage of neurons and glia in chick dorsal root ganglia: analysisin vivo with a recombinant retrovirus.Development 111, 895–908.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lugo, T. G., Handelin, B., Killary, A. M., Housman, D. E., and Fournier, R. E. (1987) Isolation of micro-cell hybrid clones containing retroviral insertions into specific human chromosomes.Mol. Cell. Biol. 7, 2814–2820.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Duprez, D. M., Kostakopoulou, K., Francis-West, P. H., Tickle, C., and Brickell, P. M. (1996) Activation ofFgf-4 andHoxD gene expression by BMP-2 expressing cells in the developing chick limb.Development 122, 1821–1828.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Murphy, A. J. and Efstratiadis, A. (1987) Cloning vectors for expression of cDNA libraries in mammalian cells.Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 84, 8277–8281.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Morgan, B. A., Izpisúa-Belmonte, J.-C., Duboule, D., and Tabin, C. J. (1992) Targeted misexpression of homeotic transformations.Nature 358, 236–239.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Rous, P. (1911) A sarcoma of the fowl transmissible by an agent separable from tumor cells.J. Exp. Med. 13, 397–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Weiss, R. B., Teich, N., Varmus, H. E., and Coffin, J. (1985)RNA Tumor Viruses: Molecular Biology of Tumor Viruses, 2nd ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bates, P., Young, J. A. T., and Varmus, H. E. (1993) A receptor for subgroup A Rous sarcoma virus is related to the low density lipoprotein receptor.Cell 74, 1043–1051.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Robinson, H. L. (1978) Inheritance and expression of chicken genes that are related to avian leukosis sarcoma virus genes.Curr. Topics Microbiol. Immunol. 83, 1–36.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Whitcomb, J. M. and Hughes, S. H. (1992) Retroviral reverse transcription and integration: progress and problems.Annu. Rev. Cell Biol. 8, 275–306.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Hughes, S. and Kosik, E. (1984) Mutagenesis of the region betweenenv andsrc of the SR-A strain of Rous Sarcoma Virus for the purpose of constructing helper-independent vectors.Virology 136, 89–99.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Federspiel, M. J. and Hughes, S. H. (1994) Effects of thegag region on genome stability: avian retroviral vectors that contain sequences from the Bryan strain of Rous sarcoma virus.Virology 203, 211–220.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Petropoulos, C. J. and Hughes, S. (1991) Replication-competent retrovirus vectors for the transfer and expression of gene cassettes in avian cells.J. Virol. 65, 3728–3737.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hughes, S. H., Greenhouse, J. J., Petropoulos, C. J. and Sutrave, P. (1987) Adaptor plasmids simplify the insertion of foreign DNA into helper-independent retroviral vectors.J. Virol. 61 3004–3012.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Fekete, D. M. and Cepko, C. L. (1993) Replication-competent retroviral vectors encoding alkaline phosphatase reveal spatial restriction of viral gene expression/transduction in the chick embryo.Mol. Cell. Biol. 13, 2604–2613.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Greenhouse, J. J., Petropoulos, C. J., Crittenden, L. B., and Hughes, S. H. (1988) Helper-independent retrovirus vectors with Rous-Associated Virus Type O Long Terminal Repeats.J. Virol. 62, 4809–4812.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Petropoulos, C. J., Payne, W., Salter, D. W., and Hughes, S. H. (1992). Using avian retroviral vectors for gene transfer.J. Virol. 66, 3391–3397.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Astrin, S. M., Buss, E. G., and Hayward, W. S. (1979) Endogenous viral genes are non-essential in the chicken.Nature 282, 339–340.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Miller, D. G., Adam, M. A., and Miller, A. D. (1990) Gene transfer by retrovirus vectors occurs only in cells that are actively replicating at the time of infection.Mol. Cell. Biol. 10, 4239–4242.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Potts, W., Olsen, M., Boettinger, D., and Vogt, V. (1987) Epitope mapping of monoclonal antibodies togag protein p19 of avian sarcoma and leukaemia viruses.J. Gen. Virol. 68, 3177–3182.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Moscovici, C., Moscovici, M. G., Jimenez, H., Lai, M. M. C., Hayman, M. J., and Vogt, P. K. (1977) Continuous tissue culture cell lines derived from chemically induced tumors of Japanese quail.Cell 11, 95–103.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Fekete, D. M. and Cepko, C. L. (1993) Retroviral infection coupled with tissue transplantation limits gene transfer in the chicken embryo.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 2350–2354.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Riddle, R. D., Johnson, R. L., Laufer, E., and Tabin, C. J. (1993) Sonic hedgehog mediates the polarising activity of the ZPA.Cell 75, 1401–1416.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Odorizzi, G. and Trowbridge, I. S. (1994) Recombinant Rous Sarcoma Virus vectors for avian cells, inMethods in Cell Biology, vol. 43 (Roth, M. G., ed.), Academic, San Diego, pp. 79–97.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kiernan, A. E., Homburger, S. A., and Fekete, D. M. (1994) Optimization of retroviral gene transfer into the embyronic nervous system of chicks.Neurosci. Abstracts 20, 255.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Graham, F. L. and van der Eb, A. J. (1973) A new technique for the assay of infectivity of human adenovirus 5 DNA.Virology 52, 456–467.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Zwilling, E. (1959) A modified chorio-allantoic grafting procedure.Trans. Bull. 6, 238–247.

    Google Scholar 

  29. de La Pompa, J. L. and Zeller, R. (1993) Ectopic expression of genes during chick limb pattern formation using replication defective retroviral vectors.Mech. Dev. 43, 187–198.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Givol, I., Tsarfaty, I., Resau, J., Rulong, S., da Silva, P. P., Nasioulas, G., DuHadaway, J., Hughes, S. H. and Ewert, D. L. (1994) Bcl-2 expressed using a retroviral vector is localized primarily in the nuclear membrane and the endoplasmic reticulum of chicken embryo fibroblasts.Cell Growth Differ. 5, 419–429.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Hartl, M., Vogt, P. K., and Bister, K. (1995) A quail long-term cell culture transformed by a chimeric jun oncogene.Virology 207, 321–326.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Hadman, M., Loo, M., and Bos, T. J. (1993) In vivo viral and cellular Jun complexes exhibit differential interaction with a number of in vitro generated “AP-1- and CREB-like” target sequences.Oncogene 8, 1895–1903.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Metivier, C., Piu, F., Pfarr, C. M., Yaniv, M., Loiseau, L., and Castellazzi, M. (1993) In vitro transforming capacities of mouse c-jun:junD chimeric genes.Oncogene 8, 2311–2315.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Garber, E. A., Chute, H. T., Condra, J. H., Gotlib, L., Colonno, R. J., and Smith, R. G. (1991) Avian cells expressing the murine Mx1 protein are resistant to influenza virus infection.Virology 180, 754–762.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Press, R. D., Reddy, E. P., and Ewert, D. L. (1994) Overexpression of C-terminally but not N-terminally truncated Myb induces fibrosarcomas: a novel non-hematopoietic target cell for the myb oncogene.Mol. Cell. Biol. 14, 2278–2290.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Givol, I., Greenhouse, J. J., Hughes, S. H., and Ewert, D. L. (1992) Retroviruses that express different ras mutants cause different types of tumors in chickens.Oncogene 7, 141–146.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Kralova, J., Schatzle, J. D., Bargmann, W., and Bose, H. R. (1994) Transformation of avian fibroblasts overexpressing the c-rel proto-oncogene and a variant of c-rel in lacking 40 C-terminal amino acids.J. Virol. 68, 2073–2083.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Morrison, L. E., Boehmelt, G., Beug, H., and Enrietto, P. J. (1991) Expression of v-rel in a replication competent virus: transformation and biochemical characterization.Oncogene 6, 1657–1666.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Boyer, P. L., Colmenares, C., Stavnezer, E., and Hughes, S. H. (1993) Sequence and biological activity of chicken snoN cDNA clones.Oncogene 8, 457–466.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Johnson, R. L., Laufer, E., Riddle, R. D., and Tabin, C. (1994) Ectopic expression of Sonic hedgehog alters dorsal-ventral patterning of somites.Cell 79, 1165–1173.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Hillgartner, F. B., Chen, W., and Goodridge, A. G. (1992) Overexpression of the alpha-thyroid hormone receptor in avian cell lines. Effects on expression of the malic enzyme gene are selective and cell-specific.J. Biol. Chem. 267, 12,299–12,306.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Duprez, D., Bell, E. de H., Richardson, M. K., Archer, C. W., Wolpert, L., Brickell, P. M., and Francis-West, P. H. (1996) Overexpression of BMP-2 and BMP-4 alters the size and shape of developing skeletal elements in the chick limb.Mech. Dev. 57, 145–157.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Pourquié, O., Fan, C.-M., Coltey, M., Hirsinger, E., Watanabe, Y., Bréant, C., Francis-West, P., Brickell, P., Tessier-Lavigne, M., and Le Douarin, N. M. (1996) Lateral and axial signals involved in avian somite patterning: a role forBMP-4.Cell 84, 461–471.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Reissmann, E., Ernsberger, U., Francis-West, P. H., Rueger, D., Brickell, P. M. and Rohrer, H. (1996) Involvement of bone morphogenetic protein-4 and bone morphogenetic protein-7 in the specification of adrenergic phenotype in developing sympathetic neurons.Development 122, 2079–2088.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Monsoro-Burq, A.-H., Duprez, D., Watanabe, Y., Bontoux, M., Vincent, C., Brickell, P., and Le Douarin, N. (1996) The role of bone morphogenetic proteins in vertebral development.Development 122, 3607–3616.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Neurobiology, UMDS, Guy’s Hospital, London, UK

    Esther J. de H. Bell

  2. Leukaemia Research Fund Centre for Childhood Leukaemia, Molecular Haematology Unit, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, WC1N 1EH, London, UK

    Paul M. Brickell

Authors
  1. Esther J. de H. Bell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul M. Brickell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul M. Brickell.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bell, E.J.d.H., Brickell, P.M. Replication-competent retroviral vectors for expressing genes in avian cells in vitro and in vivo. Mol Biotechnol 7, 289–298 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02740819

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02740819

Index Entries

Search

Navigation