# THE TRANSFORMING GENES OF AVIAN RNA TUMOR VIRUSES

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 1987 · $97,755

## Abstract

The purpose of the proposed research is to elucidate the function(s) of the
oncogene v-ros present in avian sarcoma virus UR2 described by us.

We have recently discovered that the oncogene products p68ros of avian
sarcoma virus UR2 is associated with a phosphatidyl inositol (PtdIns)
kinase activity in vitro, and the UR2 transformed cells show enhanced
polyphosphoinositide turnover.  It is possible that ptdIns phosphorylation
might contribute to malignant transformation of susceptible cells by
generating abnormally high levels of 1,2-diacylglycerol, which appears to
be the endogeneous activator of the phorbol ester receptor (kinase C).
similar observations have been made on ppSrc by Sugimoto et al.  We intend
to investigate whether the kinase activity associated with p68ros is an
intrinsic property of the protein or whether this protein has a regulatory
role in the phosphorylation of phosphoinositols.  We plan to answer this
question by introducing the molecularly cloned genome of UR2 in expression
vectors and obtain expression of p68ros in prokaryotic cells.  We also
propose to continue our genetic studies of UR2 AV and carry out a genetic
analysis of the ros gene in an attempt to correlate specific lesions, small
deletions, and point mutations in the ros sequence, with specific
phenotypes of the transformed cells.  The goal of this investigation is to
obtain a physical-genetic map of this oncogene.

We finally plan to investigate the interaction of avian vital oncogene
expression and development of differentiation markers in neuroretinal cells
in an attempt to shed light on the normal function of the corresponding
proto-oncogenes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3170280
- **Project number:** 5R01CA032310-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **SAM.gov UEI:** F27KDXZMF9Y8
- **Principal Investigator:** PIERO C BALDUZZI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $97,755
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1983-03-01 → 1990-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3170280

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3170280, THE TRANSFORMING GENES OF AVIAN RNA TUMOR VIRUSES (5R01CA032310-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3170280. Licensed CC0.

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