COS cells
Encyclopedia
COS is a cell line often used by biologists when studying the monkey virus SV40
SV40
SV40 is an abbreviation for Simian vacuolating virus 40 or Simian virus 40, a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans...

. Cells from this line are also often transfected to produce recombinant proteins for molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology experiments. Two forms of COS cell lines commonly used are COS-1 and COS-7.

The COS cell line was obtained by immortalizing a CV-1 cell line derived from kidney cells of the African green monkey with a version of the SV40 genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....

 that can produce large T antigen
SV40 Large T-antigen
SV40 large T antigen is a hexamer protein that is a proto-oncogene derived from the polyomavirus SV40 which is capable of transforming a variety of cell types. The transforming activity of TAg is due in large part to its perturbation of the retinoblastoma and p53 tumor suppressor proteins...

 but has a defect in genomic replication. COS stands for CV-1 origin, SV-40.

When an expression construct with an SV40 promoter is introduced into COS cells, the vector can be replicated substantially by the large T antigen
SV40 Large T-antigen
SV40 large T antigen is a hexamer protein that is a proto-oncogene derived from the polyomavirus SV40 which is capable of transforming a variety of cell types. The transforming activity of TAg is due in large part to its perturbation of the retinoblastoma and p53 tumor suppressor proteins...

.

The word COS is an acronym, derived from the cells being CV-1 (simian) in Origin, and carrying the SV40 genetic material.
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