Host restriction of Friend leukemia virus. Role of the viral outer coat.

Host restriction of oncogenesis of RNA tumor viruses in vivo is associated with several gene loci. One of these genes, the Fv-1 locus in mice, is expressed in vitro and may be studied in mouse-embryo cultures that are restrictive or permissive for replication of Friend leukemia virus. Two strains of Friend leukemia virus, N-or B-tropic, show reciprocal ability to replicate successfully in either NIH Swiss (N-type) or BALB/c (B-type) cells that differ at the Fv-1 locus. These two strains of virus and two cell lines form a system to measure host restriction in vitro. Measurement of adsorption of Friend leukemia virus to permissive or restrictive cells reveals no difference in rate or total amount of virus bound. Furthermore, studies with virions of vesicular stomatitis virus phenotypically mixed within an envelope containing Friend leukemia virus protein show no differences in penetration or replication of vesicular stomatitis virus. These results strongly suggest that host restriction of Friend leukemia virus is due to an intracellular event in the viral replication cycle.