THE E6 GENE OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS TYPE-16 IS SUFFICIENT FOR TRANSFORMATION OF BABY RAT-KIDNEY CELLS IN COTRANSFECTION WITH ACTIVATED HA-RAS

The transforming potential of the E6 open reading frame (ORF) of the h uman papillomavirus type 16 was investigated with transformation assay s in cotransfections with an activated ras gene. The E6 ORF driven by the heterologous CMV promoter could fully transform baby rat kidney ce lls (BRK) in cooperation with ras. The transformed cells grew in soft agar and induced tumors in athymic nude mice. The E6 ORF with mutation s at the splicing donor site, which only encodes the full length E6 bu t not E6()s, could also fully transform the BRK cells at a similar ef ficiency as the wild-type E6 ORF, indicating that the full-length E6 w as sufficient for the transformed phenotype. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.