Murine myeloid cell lines derived by in vitro infection with recombinant c-myb retroviruses express myb from rearranged vector proviruses.

To date, cellular transformation in vitro by the myb oncogene has been described for avian haemopoietic cells only. In order to exploit the well-characterized murine haemopoietic system to study transformation by myb, we have infected fetal liver cells with retroviral vectors carrying cDNAs that encode either complete or carboxy-terminally truncated c-myb proteins. We describe four cell lines which, despite our ability to efficiently infect haemopoietic target cells, were generated at low frequency. This was due, as least in part, to the requirement for a rearrangement within the vector that allowed expression of myb sequences. Three of the lines express a truncated myb protein while the fourth apparently expresses a normal c-myb protein, and thus constitutes an exception to the general association of truncation with transformation by myb. All four cell lines resemble immature cells of the myelomonocytic lineage and are dependent on colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) for their growth in vitro. One representative line could be converted to CSF-independence by infection with either Abelson murine leukaemia virus or a recombinant granulocyte-macrophage-CSF-encoding retrovirus; unlike the parental line, the resultant sublines were highly tumorigenic when injected into syngeneic mice.