| Mouse mammary tumor virus | |
|---|---|
Virus classification 
| |
| (unranked): | Virus |
| Realm: | Riboviria |
| Kingdom: | Pararnavirae |
| Phylum: | Artverviricota |
| Class: | Revtraviricetes |
| Order: | Ortervirales |
| Family: | Retroviridae |
| Genus: | Betaretrovirus |
| Species: | Mouse mammary tumor virus
|
Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) is a milk-transmitted retrovirus like the HTL viruses, HI viruses, and BLV. It belongs to the genus Betaretrovirus. 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 John Joseph Bittner while working at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Bittner 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.[1][2] The majority of mammary tumors in mice are caused by mouse mammary tumor virus.
- ^ Bittner, J. J. (1936). "Some Possible Effects of Nursing on the Mammary Gland Tumor Incidence in Mice". Science. 84 (2172): 162. Bibcode:1936Sci....84..162B. doi:10.1126/science.84.2172.162. PMID 17793252. S2CID 31163817.
- ^ "Medicine: Cancer Virus". TIME magazine. 18 March 1946. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011.