Variants of simian virus 40-transformed 3T3 cells that are resistant to concanavalin A.

By treating populations of simian virus 40 (SV40)-transformed 3T3 cells with concanavalin A, variants have been isolated which are resistant to the killing action of the lectin. The variants (i) resemble 3T3 cells morphologically and in some of their growth characteristics; (ii) are not agglutinated by high concentrations of concanavalin A or wheat germ agglutinin, but can be rendered agglutinable by treatment with low concentrations of trypsin; (iii) bind the same number of concanavalin A molecules as 3T3 or SV3T3 cells; (iv) cannot be transformed by SV40 and are resistant to focus formation after infection with murine sarcoma virus; (v) contain SV40-specific T antigen and RNA and; (vi) yield wild-type SV40 virus after heterokaryon formation with BS-C-1 cells.