Transformation of human cells by temperature-sensitive mutants of simian virus-40.

Conditions necessary for the establishment and maintenance of transformation of human cells by wild type and temperature-sensitive mutants of SV40 were examined. For both early and late mutants, the frequency of transformation was found to be up to 5-fold higher, and virus yield 100-fold lower, at 39 degrees than at 33 degrees. No such effect was observed with the wild type virus under the same conditions. This observation is apparently at variance with previously published work, but may be explained by the semipermissive nature of the cells that we used. Increasing the temperature to 40.5 degrees caused cells transformed by the early mutant, tsA30, to lose T-antigen as detectable by staining, and also to lose the ability to grow to high density, while it produced no effect on cells transformed by wild type virus.