Alternative excision products originating from a single integration of polyomavirus DNA

The Cyp cell line consists of mouse cells transformed by a thermosensitive polyomavirus (Py) genome and routinely propagated at 39 degrees C. Cyp cells are readily induced to synthesize free Py DNA by being transferred to 33 degrees C. In one subclone (C12/a1/S48, or S48) of this line, such induction resulted in the intracellular accumulation of three discrete species of cyclic DNA, i.e., genomic Py DNA, RmI, and RmII. RmI and RmII are Py-mouse chimeras, each of which contains a distinct set of sequences originating from the site of integration. Conceivably, genomic Py DNA, RmI, and RmII could persist at 39 degrees C as free replicating plasmids or originate from distinct populations of cells in S48 cultures. The data indicated that all three species arise at 33 degrees C from a genetically homogeneous cell population in which neither RmI nor RmII replicates at 39 degrees C. Examination of the sequence at the viral-cellular junction unique to RmII indicated that this chimera is excised from the host chromosome through a recombination event involving a complex viral sequence and a simple cellular sequence. Therefore, RmII provides another example of precise recombination occurring between nonhomologous sequences in a mammalian cell, as already observed for RmI (B. S. Sylla, D. Huberdeau, D. Bourgaux-Ramoisy, and P. Bourgaux, Cell 37:661-667, 1984).