Human cytomegalovirus (strain AD169) contains sequences related to the avian retrovirus oncogene v-myc

Abstract

We have detected nucleotide sequences related to the transforming gene (v-myc) of avian myelocytomatosis virus MC-29 in the DNA genome of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strain AD169. Cloned DNA representing the entire 1.5-kilobase-pair oncogene v-myc and subfragments of this gene were hybridized to EcoRI-cleaved HCMV virion DNA and cloned subgenomic HCMV DNA fragments. Only a 0.5-kilobase-pair Pst I-Sal I subfragment representing the 5' end of the coding sequence of the v-myc oncogene hybridized to the HCMV DNA. We have localized these v-myc-related sequences to five regions in the long unique segment of the HCMV genome corresponding to EcoRI fragments C, I, P, R, and b and to regions within the EcoRI junction fragments F and H at or near the repeats bounding the short unique segment. There was no hybridization of these HCMV sequences to other retroviral oncogenes tested including v-src, v-myb, v-erb, v-ST-fes, v-fos, v-ras (Harvey), v-mos, and v-abl.