New class of leukemogenic ecotropic recombinant murine leukemia virus isolated from radiation-induced thymomas of C57BL/6 mice

We previously reported the establishment of several lymphoid cell lines from X-ray-induced thymomas of C57BL/Ka mice, and all, except one, produce retroviruses. Biological characterization of five of these new primary radiation leukemia viruses (RadLVs) indicated that they had a B-tropic, fibrotropic, and ecotropic host range and were leukemogenic when reinjected into C57BL/Ka newborn mice. The leukemogenic potential of one isolate (G6T2) was further assessed and shown to be retained after prolonged passaging on fibroblasts in vitro. Restriction endonuclease analysis of the DNA of four of our new RadLV isolates (G6T2, Ti-7, Ti-8, and Ti-9) revealed that G6T2 and Ti-7 murine leukemia virus (MuLV) genomes had identical restriction maps, whereas Ti-8 and Ti-9 genomes were different from each other and from the G6T2 and Ti-7 genomes. The physical maps of these genomes were similar to that of known ecotropic MuLV genomes (including the C57BL/Ka endogenous ecotropic MuLV) within their long terminal repeats, env, the right portion of pol, and the left portion of gag. However, a region covering the end of gag and the beginning of pol was different and showed several similarities with xenotropic MuLV genomes of BALB/c, AKR, and C58 mice previously mapped. Our results suggest that these primary RadLV genomes are recombinants between the parental ecotropic MuLV genome and a nonecotropic (xenotropic) sequence. To further study the leukemic potential of these RadLVs, the genome of one of them (G6T2) was cloned in Charon 21A as an infectious molecule