Bovine papillomavirus vector that propagates as a plasmid in both mouse and bacterial cells

We report the construction of a bovine papillomavirus (BPV)-derived recombinant plasmid that propagates as an extrachromosomal element in both mouse and bacterial cells. Plasmids composed of a subgenomic transforming fragment of BPV DNA, a deletion derivative of pBR322, and a 7.6-kilobase fragment of DNA from the human beta-globin gene cluster efficiently induce focus formation on mouse C127 cells. BPV-beta-globin hybrids are maintained in the transformed cells as plasmids with a copy number of about 10-30 per cell. Plasmids indistinguishable from the input DNA have been recovered by transformation of bacteria with low molecular weight DNA from transformed mouse cells. The human beta-globin gene linked to BPV DNA is transcribed from its own promoter at a high level in these cells. The expression of BPV-linked cellular genes in conjunction with the ability to shuttle DNA between bacteria and mammalian cells may provide a rapid means of analyzing and recovering genes that confer an identifiable phenotype upon mammalian cells.