A transformation-competent recombinant between v-src and Rous-associated virus RAV-1

The LTR, v-src, LTR provirus, which arose by the reverse transcription and integration of src mRNA in the H-19 hamster tumor, has been successfully rescued by fusion with chicken fibroblasts infected with Rous-associated virus RAV-1. One rescued virus, E6, acquired 1 kilobase of the 5' end of the gag gene structure. Recombination took place in the region of 15-nucleotide homology exactly between v-src exon (position 7054) and gag (position 1417). This recombination resulted in the alteration of src splice acceptor site sequences, but this site is maintained as a functional splice acceptor site. The nucleotide structure of the long terminal repeat of recombinant E6 virus suggests that it arose by the intermolecular jump of reverse transcription from RAV-1 to src mRNA and then the switch of templates between already depicted regions of homology. The second jump of reverse transcription was apparently an intramolecular event. The acquisition of 1 kilobase of the 5' gag by E6 resulted in maintaining the balance of unspliced and spliced E6 RNAs and assured the replication advantage of rescued E6 virus over rescued F6 virus, the genome of which corresponds to that present in ancestral H-19 cells.