# ANALYSIS OF CELL TRANSFORMATION BY BOVINE PAPILLOMAVIRUS

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 1987 · $186,578

## Abstract

The papillomaviruses cause benign tumors of epithelial cells in
both humans and animals, and is some cases these tumors progress
to malignancies.  The viruses are poorly understood because they
do not productively infect cells in tissue culture, but mouse cells
in culture can be oncologically transformed by bovine
papillomavirus type I (BPV) or by BPV DNA.  We will continue our
comprehensive genetic analysis of bovine papillomavirus.  Our
long range goals are to identify the viral genes and gene product
and to characterize their biological activities, to established the
mechanism of their regulation and to determine their biochemical
contribution to oncogenic transformation.

The primary approach that will be used is the construction and
analysis of viral mutants.  A variety of directed mutagenesis
techniques will be used to introduce defined mutations into each
of the viral genes and regulatory signals.  Initially, we will
concentrate on three BPV gene ORFS E5, E2, and E6 which seem
to influence the ability of the viral DNA to transform mouse cells
or the phenotype of the transformed cells.  The effect of the
mutations will be determined in a variety of biological and
biochemical assays in mouse C127 cells and in other cultured
epithelial cells.  Cell lines that express a subset of the viral genes
will be generated and analyzed to identify viral gene products and
their functions.  Transient assays systems will be developed to
investigate papillomavirus gene regulation.  Temperature
sensitive mutants will also be isolated and analyzed.  We will also
attempt to induce capsid protein synthesis in cultured cells so
that viral mutants can be encapsidated.  This ability would enable
us to complement the analysis of the in vitro activities of the
mutants with studies of their activities during lytic growth in
animals.

These studies should help indicate how each viral gene contributes
to the conversion of a normal cell into a malignant one.  Because
of the association of papillomavirus with human carcinomas, our
findings may be relevant to understanding the genesis of human
cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3174907
- **Project number:** 2R01CA037157-04
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** FL6GV84CKN57
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel C. Dimaio
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $186,578
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1984-04-01 → 1992-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3174907

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3174907, ANALYSIS OF CELL TRANSFORMATION BY BOVINE PAPILLOMAVIRUS (2R01CA037157-04). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3174907. Licensed CC0.

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