Abstract
The discovery of a filterable agent that allowed the transmission of cancers in chickens (1) was the first identification of the viruses now known as retroviruses. Subsequently, genes transmitted by some retroviruses were identified as transforming oncogenes. These findings suggested that retroviruses may be used as genetic vectors, since retroviral oncogenes (v-onc) are altered forms of “highjacked” normal cellular genes (2), and the retroviruses that transform cells in culture are often defective for replication because the v-onc genes have been substituted in place of one or more of the essential replicative genes (3). Such defective oncogenic retroviruses can be propagated only in the presence of a wild-type “helper” virus, which supplies the functional gene products of the virus. Retroviruses can now be modified to become vehicles for the delivery and expression of cloned genes into a wide variety of cells, for both experimental and therapeutic purposes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Rous, P. (1911) A sarcoma of the fowl transmissible by an agent separable from the tumour cells. J. Exp. Med. 13, 397–411
Stehelin, D., Varmus, H. E., Bishop, J. M., and Vogt, P. K. (1976) DNA related to the transforming gene(s) of avian sarcoma viruses is present in normal avian DNA. Nature 260, 170–173.
Neil, J C., Hughes, D, McFarlane, R., Wilkie, N M., Oinions, D. E., Lees, G., and Jarrett, O. (1984) Transduction and rearrangement of the myc gene by feline leukaemia virus in naturally occurring T-cell leukaemias. Nature 308, 814–820.
Friedmann, T. (1989) Progress toward human gene therapy. Science 244, 1275–1281.
Gluzman, Y. and Hughes, S. H. (1988) Viral Vectors (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY).
Panganiban, A. T. and Fiore, D. (1988) Ordered interstrand and intrastrand DNA transfer during reverse transcription. Science 241, 1064–1069.
Varmus, H. E. (1983) Retroviruses, in Mobile Genetic Elements. (Shapiro, J., ed), Academic, NY, pp. 411–503.
Mann, R., Mulligan, R. C., and Baltimore, D. (1983) Construction of a retrovirus packaging mutant and its use to produce helper-free defective retrovirus. Cell 33, 153–159.
Mann, R. and Baltimore, D. (1985) Varying the position of a retrovirus packaging sequence results in the encapsidation of both unspliced and spliced RNAs. J Virol. 54, 401–407.
Weiss, R. A., Teich, N., Varmus, J, and Coffin, J., eds. (1982,1985) Molecular Biology of Tumor Viruses, RNA Tumor Viruses (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY), vols. 1, 2.
Bender, M. A., Palmer, T. D., Gelinas, R. E., and Miller, A D. (1987) Evıdence that the packaging signal of Moloney murine leukaemia virus extends into the gag region J. Virol 61, 1639–1646
Varmus, H. E. (1988) Retroviruses. Science 240, 1427–1435.
Panganiban, A. T. and Varmus, H. M. (1983) The terminal nucleotides of retrovirus DNA are required for integration but not virus production. Nature 306, 155–160.
Keller, G., Paige, P., Gilboa, E., and Wagner, E. F. (1985) Expression of a foreign gene in myeloid and lymphoid cells derived from multipotent haematopoietic precursors. Nature 318, 149–154.
Korman, A. J., Frantz, J. D., Strominger, J. L., and Mulligan, R. C. (1987) Expression of human class II major histocompatibihty complex antigens using retrovirus vectors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Scı. USA 84, 2150–2154.
Emerman, M. and Temin, H. M. (1984) Genes with promoters in retrovirus vectors can be independently suppressed by an epigenic mechanism. Cell 9, 459–467
Dzierzak, E. A., Papayannopoulou, T., and Mulligan, R. C. (1988) Lineage-specific expression of a human β-globin gene in murine bone marrow transplant recipients reconstituted with retrovirus-transduced stem cells. Nature 331, 35–41.
Grosveld, F., van Assendelft, G. B., Greaves, D. R., and Kollias, G (1987) Position-independent, high-level expression of the human β-globin gene in transgenic mice. Cell 51, 975–985.
Shin, C.-C., Stoye, J. P., and Coffin, J. M. (1988) Highly preferred targets for retrovirus integration. Cell 53, 531–537.
Yu, S.-F., von Ruden, T., Kantoff, P W., Garber, C., Seiberg, M., Ruther, U., Anderson, W. F., Wagner, E. F., and Gilboa, E. (1986) Self-inactivating retroviral vectors designed for transfer of whole genes into mammalian cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83, 3194–3198.
Cone, R. D., Weber-Benarous, A., Baorto, D., and Mulligan, R. C. (1987) Regulated expression of a complete human beta globin gene encoded by a transmissible retrovirus vector. Mol. Cell. Biol. 7, 887–897.
Yee, J. K., Moores, J. C., Jolly, D. J., Wolff, J. A., Respess, J. G., and Friedmann, T. (1987) Gene expression from transcriptionally disabled retroviral vectors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 5197–5201.
Hawley, R. G., Covarrubias, L., Hawley, T., and Mintz, B. (1987) Handicapped retroviral vectors efficiently transduce foreign genes into haematopoietic stem cells. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 84, 2406–2410.
Von Melchner, H. and Ruley, H. E. (1989) Identification of cellular promoters by using a retrovirus promoter trap. J. Virol 63, 3227–3233.
Xu, Li., Yee, J.-K., Wolff, J A., and Friedmann, T. (1989) Factors affecting long-term stability of Moloney murine leukaemia virus-based vectors. Virology 171, 331–341
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 The Humana Press Inc., Clifton, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Vile, R. (1991). The Retroviral Life Cycle and the Molecular Construction of Retrovirus Vectors. In: Collins, M.K.L. (eds) Practical Molecular Virology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 8. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-191-8:1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-191-8:1
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-191-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-495-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols