Epidemiologists at the CDC in Atlanta, GA, have called you in to investigate an increased incidence of leukemia in a remote region of Africa. Shortly after arriving, an RNA virus was isolated from patients and found to induce leukemia in mice. At this point you don't know the mechanism or viral gene product associated with the development of leukemia. One of your lab assistants has isolated a variant of the virus that is missing 20% of the genome of the original virus and does not induce leukemia in mice. a) How would you determine which portion of the genome is associated with the development of leukemia?
b) How would you characterize the viral product from this portion of the viral genome associated with the development of cancer?
c) How would you prove that this viral gene product induces cancer (in laboratory mice, sorry o omvi subjects)?