Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) is a milk transmitted retrovirus like the HTL viruses, HI viruses and BLV. It belongs to the genus betaretroviruses. MMTV was formerly known as Bittner virus, and previously the 'milk factor' referring to the extra-chromosomal vertical transmission of murine breast cancer by adoptive nursing, demonstrated in 1936, by Dr. John Joseph Bittner, while working at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Dr. Bittner, a geneticist and cancer biologist, established the theory that a cancerous agent, or "milk factor", could be transmitted by cancerous mothers to young mice from a virus in their mother's milk. The majority of mammary tumors in mice are caused by mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV).
Read more about Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus: Infection and Life Cycle, Hormonal Responsiveness of Integrated MMTV DNA, MMTV and Human Breast Cancer, The MMTV Promoter in Models of Human Breast Cancer, Recent Scientific Publications
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