Negative regulation of retrovirus expression in embryonal carcinoma cells mediated by an intragenic domain.

An intragenic region spanning the tRNA primer binding site of a Moloney murine leukemia virus recombinant retrovirus was found to restrict expression specifically in embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells. When the inhibitory domain was present, the levels of steady-state RNA synthesized from integrated recombinant templates in stable cotransformation assays were reduced 20-fold in EC cells but not in C2 myoblast cells. Transient-cotransfection assays showed that repression of a template containing the EC-specific inhibitory component was relieved by an excess of specific competitor DNA. In addition, repression mediated by the inhibitory component was orientation independent. This evidence demonstrates the presence of a saturable, trans-acting negative regulatory factor(s) in EC cells and suggests that the interaction of the factor(s) with the intragenic inhibitory component occurs at the DNA level.