Early Steps of Replication of Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus in Resting Lymphocytes

We explored the role of cell type in the early steps of replication of Moloney murine leukemia virus (Mo-MLV) by comparing viral entry and reverse transcription in physiologically quiescent peripheral blood B and T lymphocytes. Virus entry was identical in both cell types. In contrast to previous results, full-length viral DNA was synthesized in resting B lymphocytes, but in agreement with earlier reports, reverse transcription was abortive in resting T lymphocytes. The addition of exogenous nucleosides in the culture medium of resting T lymphocytes allowed reverse transcription to proceed in these cells, without inducing cell cycling. These data suggest that the difference in the ability of quiescent T and B lymphocytes to sustain reverse transcription of Mo-MLV can be explained by a difference in the dNTP pool sizes of these two populations of quiescent cells.