Nucleotide sequence of Abelson murine leukemia virus genome: structural similarity of its transforming gene product to other onc gene products with tyrosine-specific kinase activity.

The nucleotide sequence of the proviral genome of Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV), an acute transforming virus of murine origin, has been determined. Like other transforming viruses, A-MuLV contains sequences derived from its helper virus, Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV), and a cell-derived protooncogene (abl) insertion sequence. By comparison of the A-MuLV sequence with that of M-MuLV, it was possible to precisely localize and define sequences contributed by the host cellular DNA. From the nucleotide sequence, we have predicted the amino acid sequence of p120gag-abl, the product of the A-MuLV gag-abl hybrid gene. The amino acid sequence of the putative abl gene, when compared with the sequences of other tyrosine-specific protein kinases (src, fes, fps, and yes), revealed significant homologies, indicating that all these functionally related transforming genes are derived from divergent members of the same protooncogene family. In addition to the gag-abl sequence, the proviral genome was found to contain an additional open reading frame that could code for an 18,000-dalton protein, whose role is at present undetermined.