Bovine leukemia virus long terminal repeat: a cell type-specific promoter.

The functional activity of the promoter unit contained within the long terminal repeat (LTR) of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) was examined by monitoring transient expression of a heterologous gene placed under its control. Various cell lines were transfected with recombinant plasmids carrying the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene coupled to the BLV LTR (pBL-cat). Transient expression of CAT activity directed by the BLV LTR was observed only in the established BLV-producer cell lines derived from fetal lamb kidney (FLK) cells and bat lung cells. The amount of CAT activity transiently expressed in FLK-BLV cells was decreased approximately tenfold by deletion of LTR sequences located within a region 100 to 170 nucleotides upstream of the RNA start site. Surprisingly, removal of the region 50 base pairs downstream of the RNA initiation site to the 3'-end of the LTR reduced the expression of CAT activity by 87 percent. The BLV LTR thus appears to be an unusual promoter unit, functioning in a cell type-specific manner and possessing sequences on both the 5' and 3' sides of the RNA start site that influence gene expression.