[Molecular biology of natural and constructed in vitro recombinants of human adenoviruses and SV40]

Abstract

This review is devoted to the molecular and biological properties of natural and artificial Ad-SV40 hybrids. The conditions of adenovirus and SV40 recombinant formations are discussed. The principal one is the ability of the C-terminal portion of the SV40 T-antigen to carry a helper function for growing human adenoviruses in the cultures of simian cells, in which the adenoviruses themselves are not reproduced. The data about the structural and functional organization of the hybrid RNA and proteins, tumor properties of defective and nondefective Ad-SV40 recombinants are provided. A special chapter is devoted to the construction of Ad-SV40 hybrids in vitro. The possibility of using them not only for the investigation of adenoviral properties, but for the super production of different proteins is marked. Alongside the corresponding region of SV40 genome may perform the function of a selection marker for the creation of eucaryotic vectors on the basis of adenoviruses.