ABSTRACT
The response of DNA tumor viruses to carcinogens is a well-documented phenomenon involving asynchronous DNA replication. The correlation between carcinogen doses, DNA lesions, and the inducibility of asynchronous viral replication as summarized above has given rise to the hypothesis that asynchronous viral DNA replication may be mediated by protein factors that primarily play a role in the regulation of cellular DNA replication. The use of molecular biology methodologies has enabled a better understanding of this type of DNA replication at the molecular level and has shed new light on the use of viral DNA sequences as a marker system for examining the effects of carcinogens on mammalian cells. The complex response of mammalian cells to carcinogens is mediated through DNA replication and selective gene expression. This review demonstrated the role of carcinogen inducible proteins as mediators of viral DNA replication, as a model system to understand changes in cellular genes which carry similar regulatory domains.
