Adenovirus type 12-transformed rat embryo brain and rat liver epithelial cell lines: adenovirus type 12 genome content and viral protein expression.

By Southern blotting analysis, six adenovirus type 12 (Ad-12)-transformed rat embryo brain cell lines and one Ad-12-transformed rat liver epithelial line were shown to contain all or nearly all the Ad-12 genome. Another Ad-12 rat liver epithelial cell line contained a repeating structure consisting of only the left-hand 16% of the Ad-12 genome. Three Ad-12-specified proteins (molecular weights, 52,000, 41,000, and 18,000) were found by immunoprecipitation to be common to all of these cell lines. Two rat liver epithelial lines, produced from an Ad-12-infected culture and previously shown to be T-antigen negative by immunofluorescence, contained no detectable Ad-12 genome or Ad-12-specified proteins. Although some of the rat embryo brain transformants had been shown previously to express "late" Ad-12 mRNA, no Ad-12 structural proteins were found to be produced by these cell lines.