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The large tumor antigen of simian virus 40 (SVLT) is a potent oncogene. Although inactivation of the p53 and pRb tumor suppressors has been causally linked to the transforming properties of SVLT, its exact mechanism of action remains undefined. Previous data indicated that Ras is activated in SVLT-expressing cells. In this report we show that SVLT also increases Raf kinase activity in both insect and mammalian cells, thus identifying the Raf kinase as an additional target of SVLT. Our results further show that SVLT was still able to activate Raf in cells where Ras levels had been drastically reduced through expression of an antisense construct, indicating that SVLT may activate Raf at least partly by a mechanism that is independent of its stimulatory effect on Ras.

The effect of polyoma middle-sized tumor antigen (MTAg) on phosphatidylinositol metabolism has been characterized in vivo and in vitro using polyoma-transformed and polyoma-infected cells. Cells infected with transformation-competent polyoma virus exhibit increased levels of inositol phospholipids and the second messenger inositol trisphosphate. MTAg or pp60c-src immunoprecipitates from MTAg-transformed cells contain an activity that phosphorylates phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate. This activity is induced in parallel with MTAg when the MTAg synthesis is regulated by hormonal or heavy metal inducers. Immunoprecipitates from one class of polyoma mutants defective in transformation have a reduced level of associated phosphatidylinositol kinase activity in vitro yet are capable of tyrosine phosphorylation on exogenous protein substrates at rates comparable to wild-type virus. Thus, for these mutants, phosphatidylinositol kinase activity is more tightly correlated with transformation than is protein kinase activity. These results suggest that alterations in phosphatidylinositol metabolism by MTAg play a role in transformation by polyoma virus.

Polyoma middle T antigen (mT) was expressed in rat F-111 cells under control of the dexamethasone-regulatable mouse mammary tumor virus promoter. Graded phenotypic responses to levels of mT induction by the hormone were seen, with morphological transformation, focus formation, and anchorage-independent growth requiring increasing levels of mT expression. The ability of different clones to form tumors reflected their maximum level of induction of mT-associated kinase and their ability to grow in soft agar. Expression of transformation parameters and tumorigenicity correlates with the level of mT phosphorylated by pp60c-src in immune complexes and not with the total amount of mT determined by metabolic labeling. We suggest that cellular factors regulate mT activity by forming a kinase-active fraction of mT molecules that controls the transformed state.

Polyomavirus middle tumor antigen (mT) was expressed in a line of mouse NIH 3T3 cells under control of the dexamethasone-regulatable mouse mammary tumor virus promotor. Contrary to rat F111 cells which were rendered anchorage independent by mT expression alone (L. Raptis, H. Lamfrom, and T.L. Benjamin, Mol. Cell. Biol. 5:2476-2487, 1985), mT-producing NIH 3T3 cells were unable to grow in agar even after full mT induction. The mT:pp60c-src-associated phosphatidylinositol kinase was activated in these cells to a degree similar to that in fully transformed cells expressing the small and large T antigens, in addition to mT. We therefore propose that the stimulation of this phosphatidylinositol kinase, although apparently necessary, is not sufficient for transformation of NIH 3T3 cells by polyomavirus.