Pleiotropic derepression of developmentally regulated cellular and viral genes by c-myc protooncogene products in undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma cells.

We show here in mouse embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells that the endo A gene is negatively regulated and shares negative transacting factors with the Py and SV40 viruses. The products of the proto-oncogene c-myc derepress at the transcriptional level the appropriately initiated expression of the endo A gene and activate the Py early promoter in EC stem cells. C-myc products also activate the endo A and the Py early promoters in TDM epithelial cells, and the Py early promoter in 3T6 cells in which the two genes are already expressed or can be expressed. Furthermore we show that the myc exon 1 is essential for activation and that this activation might be mediated by AP1 family factors.