THE PROPOSED CONTRACT WILL EXAMINE THE ABILITIES OF VARIOUS CELL SYSTEMS TO DETECT ONCOGENES OR PROTO-ONCOGENES.

THE PROPOSED CONTRACT WILL EXAMINE THE ABILITIES OF VARIOUS CELL SYSTEMS TO DETECT ONCOGENES OR PROTO-ONCOGENES. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE DURING PHASE I WILL BE TO CHARACTERIZE THESENSITIVITY OF A VARIETY OF CELL CULTURE SYSTEMS BOTH WITH RESPECT TO TRANSFECTABILITY (ABILITY TO TAKE UP AND EXPRESS EXOGENOUS DNA) AND TO TRANSFORMABILITY (ABILITY TO EXPRESS TRANSFORMED PHENOTYPE, I.E., FOCUS FORMATION, SOFT AGAR GROWTH, GROWTH FACTOR INDEPENDENT GROWTH, AND TUMORIGENI- CITY) BY A VARIETY OF DEFINED ONCOGENES. TRANSFECTABILITY WILL BE DETERMINED WITH A NEOMYCIN RESISTANCE MARKER; TRANSFORMABILITY WILL BE DETERMINED USING CERTAIN CLONED ONCOGENES (I.E., MUTANT H-RAS, NEU, V-ABL, V-SRC, AND V-MYC). THESE STUDIES SHOULD PROVIDE A LIMITED NUMBER OF CELL SYSTEMS APPLICABLE FOR TRANSFECTION. AS SOME OF THE PROPOSED CELL SYSTEMS ARE NONFIBROBLASTIC-MCF-7 (HUMAN BREAST ADENOCARCINOMA), JB-6 (MURINE EPIDERMAL), AND CT-6 (MURINE LYMPHOBLAST)-INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED ABOUT THE ABILITY OF WIDELY VARYING ONCOGENES (RAS, NEU, V-ABL, V-SRC)TO EFFECT A VARIETY OF TUMORORIGENIC PROPERTIES IN VARIOUS CELL LINES. IN THE PHASE II PORTION OF THE CONTRACT, THOSE SYSTEMS THAT APPEARED PROMISING WOULD BE TRANSFECTED WITH OTHER CLONED ONCOGENES AND WITH HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT DNA FROM A VARIETY OF TUMOR CELL LINES.