Reassociation of complementary strand-specific adenovirus type 2 DNA with viral DNA sequences of transformed cells

Complementary strand-specific adenovirus DNA, either full length or from restriction enzyme cleavage fragments, was used to estimate the fractional representation and abundance of viral sequences in two adenovirus type 2 (Ad2)-transformed rat cell lines, A2F19 and A2T2C4. The reassociation method introduced is based on the linear relationship, after exhaustive hybridization, between the inverted fraction of hybrid DNA and the molar ratio of probe to cellular DNA in the reaction mixture. The amount of viral DNA in A2F19 cells represents 12 to 14% of the viral genome at a level of around seven copies per diploid cell equivalent. For the cell line A2T2C4, the pattern of integrated viral DNA sequences is more complex. With full-length Ad2 DNA strands as a probe, about 56% of the probe was represented in cellular DNA. When each of the four BamHI fragment strands of Ad2 DNA was used as a probe, the fraction of the viral DNA present also amounted to around 56% with one to five copies from different regions of the viral genome. The results demonstrate the advantage of using strand-specific viral DNA as a probe in reassociation analysis with denatured cell DNA. The method should be useful in any system in which complementary strand separation of viral DNA sequences can be achieved.