In vitro selection of high-infectious, leukemogenic virus from low-infectious, non-leukemogenic type C virus from a malignant ST/a mouse cell line.

Low-infectious, nontransforming type C virus was isolated from an in vitro spontaneously transformed ST/a mouse cell line, ST-L1. The virus released by ST-L1 cells was NB-tropic and XC(-). It gave rise to very small peroxidase antibody plaques (PAP) in cultures which initially were nonproducing. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels of the structural proteins of the ST-L1 virus showed an envelope glycoprotein with an apparent mass of 65 kilodaltons (kdal). The mouse cells SC-1, BALB/3T3, and NIH/3T3 could be productively infected with cell-free supernatants from the ST-L1 cell line; however, virus was detected in supernatant fluids only after two to four subcultures of the infected cells. The virus thus produced was XC(+) and a large plaque former. The virus released from infected SC-1 cells was N-tropic, whereas the viruses from infected NIH/3T3 and BALB/3T3 cells were NB-tropic. The structural proteins of the N- and NB-tropic viruses could be distinguished on SDS polyacrylamide gels, the major dissimilarity being a difference in the mobility of the p30. All these viruses had an envelope glycoprotein with an apparent mass of 70 kdal. The infectivity of the viruses, measured as PAP per nanogram of p30, was 30- to 60-fold lower for the virus released from the ST-L1 cell line than that of the viruses after passage in SC-1, NIH/3T3, and BALB/3T3 cells. None of the viruses could infect rabbit or mink cells. Inoculation of the viruses into newborn mice showed that the ST-L1 virus was non-leukemogenic, whereas the NB-tropic virus selected from this after passage in BALB/3T3 or NIH/3T3 cells was highly leukemogenic. Viruses isolated from leukemic animals were indistinguishable with respect to host range and protein mobilities in SDS gels from the ones with which the mice were inoculated. Although the SC-1-selected virus was highly infectious in vitro, it was only weakly, if at all, leukemogenic.