Characterization of a large genomic size Moloney murine sarcoma virus produced by a transformed rat cell line

A rat cell line (78A1) transformed by the Moloney murine sarcoma virus-Moloney murine leukaemia virus (Mo-MuSV-MuLV) complex was found to produce a sarcoma virus different from the isolates previously described. Analysis of intracellular RNA of the 78A1 cell line by electrophoresis on agarose gel, and hybridization with DNA probes specific to M1-Mo-MuSV and v-mosMo sequences revealed a size of 6.7 kilobases (kb) for the RNA of this sarcoma virus. This genome is larger than those of m1, m3, HT1 and 124 isolates and slightly smaller than the myeloproliferative sarcoma virus genome (7.0 kb).