Organization and expression of viral genes in adenovirus-transformed cells

This chapter discusses the organization and expression of viral genes in adenovirus-transformed cells. Not all human adenoviruses are tumorigenic when inoculated into newborn rodents. Although adenoviruses display differences in their ability to induce tumors in animals, they transform the cells in culture. The transformation by adenoviruses is an outcome of a rare interaction between the virus and cells that either fail completely to support replication or are semi-permissive for virus growth, cells that are usually of rodent origin. Adenovirus-transformed cells exhibit an altered morphology and express virus-specific proteins (T-antigens). They also possess many other properties typical of mammalian cells transformed by viruses, including the tumorigenicity in nude mice. Viral products made during productive infection, perhaps in combination with signals present in an intact viral genome, possess the ability to override the signals recognized when segments of the viral genome become integrated.