SV40 large T-antigen and transformation related protein p53 are associated in situ with nuclear RNP structures containing hnRNA of transformed cells

• Published in: Experimental cell research Vol. 164; no. 1; pp. 35 - 48
• Main Authors: de Fromentel, C.Caron, Viron, A., Puvion, E., May, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Orlando, FL Elsevier Inc 1986; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, Viral, Tumor - analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Line; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Cell Transformation, Viral; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Mice; Microbiology; Microscopy, Electron; Neoplasm Proteins - analysis; Phosphoproteins - analysis; Replicative cycle, interference, host-virus relations, pathogenicity, miscellaneous strains; Ribonucleoproteins - analysis; RNA, Heterogeneous Nuclear - analysis; Simian virus 40 - immunology; Simian virus 40 - physiology; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; Virology; Ribonucleoprotein; Immunocytochemistry; hn-RNA; Transformed cell; Cell nucleus; Polyomavirus; Papovaviridae; Host virus relation; Virus; Transmission electron microscopy; Ultrastructure; Oncogenic virus; Localization; SV40 virus; T antigen
• ISSN: 0014-4827; 1090-2422
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-4827(86)90452-0

The localization of SV40 large T-antigen (T-Ag) and the cellular protein p53 in the nuclei of mouse and human SV40-transformed cells and of a methylcholanthrene-transformed mouse cell line, was studied. Their detection by ultrastructural immunocytochemistry with specific monoclonal antibodies employed two complementary methods used in parallel. These consisted of indirect immunoperoxidase labelling carried out before embedment on Triton-permeabilized cells, or indirect immunogold labelling applied to thin sections of cells embedded in Lowicryl K4M. The results indicate that in SV40-transformed cells both proteins are chiefly localized on peri- and interchromatin RNP fibrils. This shows that they occur in structures involved in the synthesis and processing of hnRNA. The nucleoli and chromatin did not appear to be labelled. In methylcholanthrene-transformed cells the protein p53 (in the absence of large T-Ag) was also detected on peri- and interchomatin fibrils. Taken together with recent results which demonstrated that, during lytic infection, T-Ag was associated chiefly with cellular chromatin (Harper F, Florentin, Y & Puvion E, Exp cell res 161 (1985) 434) [33], our experiments provide evidence that the transforming function of SV40 large T-Ag is dissociable from its function in SV40 lytic infection in terms of its subnuclear distribution.