THE INCORPORATION OF SV40 GENETIC MATERIAL INTO ADENOVIRUS 7 AS MEASURED BY INTRANUCLEAR SYNTHESIS OF SV40 TUMOR ANTIGEN

Abstract

A strain of adenovirus 7 once contaminated with SV40 but now free of the infectious papovavirus was found to contain the genetic information necessary to induce synthesis of a new intranuclear antigen. The antigen, which can be detected by immunofluorescence and complement fixation is immunologically identical with the tumor antigen induced by infectious SV40 in cells transformed by the papovavirus. The SV40 tumor antigen is synthesized in monkey, human, rabbit, and hamster cells following exposure of the cells to the virus; however, adenovirus penetration or replication seems required for synthesis of the new antigen to take place. Information for synthesis of the antigen is transmitted to daughter cells during mitosis. One explanation of the observations recorded might be incorporation or hybridization of a portion of a virus genome (SV40) with the genome of an unrelated virus (adenovirus).