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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1983 Jul;80(14):4203–4207. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.14.4203

Thymotropism of murine leukemia virus is conferred by its long terminal repeat.

L DesGroseillers, E Rassart, P Jolicoeur
PMCID: PMC384005  PMID: 6308605

Abstract

Several murine leukemia viruses (MuLV) replicate efficiently in the thymus (T+) of the mouse, whereas others are unable to replicate (T-) in this organ. To map the region of the viral genome harboring the sequences responsible for this thymotropic phenotype, we constructed viral DNA recombinants in vitro between cloned infectious viral DNAs from T- BALB/c N-tropic MuLV and from T+ BALB/c B-tropic MuLV or AKR Gross passage A MuLV. (N- and B-tropic refer to the Fv-1 host range of MuLV.) Infectious recombinant MuLVs, recovered from murine cells microinjected with these recombinant DNAs, were injected into newborn mice to test their ability to replicate in the thymus. We found that the long terminal repeat from the T+ BALB/c B-tropic or AKR Gross passage A MuLV genome was sufficient to allow replication of recombinant MuLVs in the thymus. Our sequence data suggested that the U3 tandem direct repeat was responsible for this effect. These results suggest a new role for the U3 long terminal repeat in the replication of MuLV in specific differentiated target cells.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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