The search for a gene involved in the determination of limited duplicative capacity in human cells.

On the assumption that EBV integration into the genome of human B lymphocyte might lead to the inactivation of a hypothetical gene determining the limited duplicative capacity and consequently participate to the cell immortalization, a search for the human-virus junction was done. This led to the identification of a site of integration in the central part of the heavy chain of the immunoglobulin region. The coincidence of the involvement of the site in lymphomatogenesis with the first complete characterization of an integration site led to the speculation that the heavy chain gene itself might be an important controller of cell duplication in the B lymphocyte.