The karyotype of Abelson-virus-induced murine leukemias was studied by G-banding. In contrast to the regular trisomy of chromosome 15 in most murine T-cell leukemias, Abelson leukemias were purely diploid, and remained diploid for up to seven consecutive passages in vivo. The hypothesis is advanced that integration into the recipient cell of the DNA copy of the large cellular insert, carried by the Abelson virus, may perform a function similar to the effects of gene duplication by trisomy in the more slowly developing murine leukemias.
Abelson murine leukemia virus Animals