DNA mediated gene transfer using simian virus 40 or polyoma virus morphological transformation as selective markers.

The stable uptake of a bacterial plasmid by mouse or rat cells has been detected following the respective co-transfection of these cells with plasmid in the presence of either Simian virus 40 (SV40) or Polyoma virus DNAs. About 60-70 percent of the resulting SV40-transformed mouse cell clones and about 40 percent of the Polyoma transformed rat cell clones contained plasmid DNA sequences.