Reduced tyrosine kinase specific activity is associated with hypophosphorylation of pp60c-src in cells infected with avian erythroblastosis virus.

Avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) is a replication-defective retrovirus that causes erythroblastosis and sarcomas in chickens and transforms immature erythroid cells and fibroblasts in culture. AEV encodes two oncogenes, v-erbA and v-erbB, whose products are closely related to the thyroxine receptor and the epidermal growth factor receptor, respectively. Since tyrosine protein kinases have been implicated in the process of normal growth signal transduction, we wished to study the possible consequences of the expression of these mutated, growth-regulating receptor genes on the activity of the cellular tyrosine kinase pp60c-src. A continuous cell line from AEV-infected quail embryo fibroblasts was derived that exhibited a typical transformed phenotype and expressed the viral oncogene products, p75gag-erbA and gp66-68erbB. Using an immune-complex kinase assay, we found that the specific activity of pp60c-src in AEV-transformed quail cells was decreased by a factor of 6-30 relative to that found in uninfected quail cells. A concomitant 50-80% reduction of 32Pi incorporation into the pp60c-src protein from radiolabeled, transformed cells was also observed, indicating a relationship between hypophosphorylation and diminished enzyme activity. Partial proteolytic phosphopeptide analysis revealed a decrease in phosphorylation of both serine- and tyrosine-containing peptides, suggesting an activation of specific phosphatases or inhibition of specific kinases in the AEV-transformed quail cells. Similar results were found in pp60c-src precipitated from AEV-transformed chicken and rat cells.