Methylation of endogenous proviruses of Brown Leghorn chickens.

Among the 7 endogenous proviruses we have detected in Brown Leghorn chickens none encodes the production of virions and only one, ev-3, expresses the gag gene. To study the possible role of DNA methylation in the inhibition of provirus expression, we performed blot hybridization and restriction endonuclease analysis with EcoRI and SmaI, is sensitive to methylation. Of the six endogenous proviral loci examined (ev-3, ev-6,, ev-22, ev-23, ev-24, ev-25), two loci, ev-23 and ev-24, were methylated at all SmaI restriction sites, in both the DNA from erythrocytes of adult chickens and the DNA from 10-day embryos. Since both these viruses are closely related to the genome of RAV-O, DNA methylation might be the cause of the absence of gene expression.