Tissue specificity of retrovirus expression in inoculated avian embryos revealed by in situ hybridization to whole-body section.

To examine the mechanism of viral tropism in vivo, we injected RAV(1) avian retrovirus into 1-day-old chicken embryos. After 8 days, the majority of the embryos became infected. In situ hybridization to whole embryo sections revealed high levels of intracellular viral RNA, apparently restricted to skeletal muscle cells. The most likely interpretation is that expression of this virus is regulated at the transcriptional level by one or more tissue-specific endogenous factors.