When a viral gene is introduced into the host cell and is sufficient to induce oncogenesis – the creation of cancerous cells – in the infected cell line, the gene is said to be a "viral transforming gene". When this type of gene is translated to a protein, the protein is called a "transforming protein". Note that since the viral oncogenes originated from a host genome, the transformation event is different from transduction, which describes the process of introducing non-native genes to a host organism via a viral infection.