Surface changes in temperature-sensitive Simian virus 40-transformed cells.

A binding assay that shows consistent differences in the amounts of tritium-labeled concanavalin A that bind to normal and virally transformed cells was used to study the kinetic changes of cell surface in SV40-transformed 3T3 cells that express the transformed phenotype in a temperature-sensitive manner (tsSV3T3 cells). The increase in concanavalin A binding, which paralleled the appearance of the characteristics of transformed cells, was dependent on the synthesis of cellular DNA. In agreement with the results of binding studies, exponentially growing tsSV3T3 cells agglutinated at much lower lectin titers (concanavalin A as well as wheat-germ agglutinin) at 32 degrees than at 39 degrees .