Expression of oncogenes in normal and transformed murine B lymphocytes.

Proliferating, lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine B lymphoblasts and a number of transformed murine B cell lines representing various differentiation stages of B cell lineage all express the myc, H-ras and K-ras oncogenes. N-ras transcripts are also present in the B cell blasts and some of the cell lines. In addition, abl, fms, fos, myb, src, and yes are transcribed in some or all of the cell lines but not in the normal B cell blasts. Only myb is expressed in a differentiation stage-specific manner; transcripts are present in the pre-B cell lines and a few of the B lymphomas but not in any plasmacytomas tested. The erbB, fes, mos, and sis probes do not hybridize with mRNA from any of the 15 cell lines or normal B cells. ErbA is not detectable in transformed cells but is expressed in the normal B cell blasts at a low level suggesting its possible involvement in normal growth regulation.