Envelope gene and long terminal repeat determine the different biological properties of Rauscher, Friend, and Moloney mink cell focus-inducing viruses.

The nucleotide sequence of the envelope (env) gene and the long terminal repeat (LTR) of an infectious clone of Rauscher mink cell focus-inducing (R-MCF) virus has been determined and compared with the published env gene and LTR sequences of Friend (F)- and Moloney (M)-MCF viruses. The sequence shows that R-MCF virus, like other MCF viruses, is a recombinant virus. Its env gene contains sequences which were acquired from an env gene in the mouse genome and which confer on the MCF virus its dualtropic host range. Unlike F-MCF and M-MCF viruses, R-MCF virus will not replicate in NIH 3T3 cells. The deduced amino acid sequence for the gp70 of R-MCF differs from that of F- and M-MCF viruses by 15 amino acids between residues 49 and 138 of gp70. These differences in amino acid sequences may be responsible for the inability of R-MCF virus to replicate in NIH 3T3 cells. The host range of two hybrid viruses constructed in vitro is consistent with this hypothesis. R-MCF virus and Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MLV) show 98% identity in their env gene 3' from the acquired env sequences. This contrasts with 82% identity between the env gene of R-MCF virus and M-MLV. The LTR of R-MCF shows 98% identity with the LTR of F-MCF as compared to 88% identity with the LTR of M-MCF. This striking similarity between the sequences of R-MCF, F-MCF, and F-MLV is surprising since the Rauscher virus and the Friend virus are thought to have originated independently. The high degree of similarity suggests that Rauscher and Friend viruses have a common origin. In contrast to M-MLV, which induces predominantly a lymphoid disease, R- and F-MCF viruses induce an erythroproliferative disease in NIH Swiss mice. A hybrid R-MCF virus with a genome derived primarily from R-MCF virus and a 3' end including the U3 region derived from M-MLV induces a lymphoid disease instead of an erythroid disease. This result indicates that it is the U3 region which determines the tissue specificity of the MCF virus-induced disease. It is suggested that the putative viral enhancers in the U3 region play two roles in the process of leukemogenesis: in the Friend and Rauscher disease, the viral enhancers act by increasing the transcription of the MCF env gene; in the thymic lymphoma, the enhancers activate mainly the expression of cellular genes.