[Application of technics for the hybridization between nucleic acids in Oncornavirus research]

The RNA-dependent DNA polymerase of oncornaviruses is a very useful tool for synthesizing DNAs complementary to the viral genomes. These probes have been successfully utilized during the last years to detect viral sequences in the DNA or RNA of virus producing or non-producing cells. The results obtained at the present time lead to a better understanding of the molecular events of virus replication and transformation by oncornaviruses. The same approach has been used to look for the presence of virus-like nucleotide sequences in various human cancers. Although promising results have been obtained, they do not establish that oncornaviruses are directly implicated in etiology of human cancers.