Development and analysis of a transformation-defective mutant of Harvey murine sarcoma tk virus and its gene product.

The Harvey murine sarcoma virus has been cloned and induces focus formation on NIH 3T3 cells. Recombinants of this virus have been constructed which include the thymidine kinase gene of herpes simplex virus type 1 in a downstream linkage with the p21 ras gene of Harvey murine sarcoma virus. Harvey murine sarcoma tk virus rescued from cells transfected with this construct is both thymidine kinase positive and focus inducing in in vitro transmission studies. The hypoxanthine-aminopterin-thymidine selectability of the thymidine kinase gene carried by this virus has been exploited to develop three mutants defective in the p21 ras sequence. All three are focus negative and thymidine kinase positive when transmitted to suitable cells. Of these, only one encodes a p22 that is immunologically related to p21. This mutant has been used to explore the relationship between the known characteristics of p21 and cellular transformation. Data presented herein indicate that the p21 of Harvey murine sarcoma virus consists of at least two domains, one which specifies the guanine nucleotide-binding activity of p21 and the other which is involved in p21-membrane association in transformed cells.