Phorbol esters were employed in studies on the molecular mechanism of the induction of expression of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) by a tumor promoter, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Experiments using the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) system showed that CAT expression directed by the long terminal repeat (LTR) of HTLV-I was induced by TPA, but not by 4α-phorbol-12,13-didecanoate, which is not an activator of protein kinase C, and that like other known enhancers, irrespective of its position and orientation, a 230-bp fragment in the U3 region of the HTLV-I LTR confers susceptibility to induction by TPA.
