Isolation of defective mutant of avian sarcoma virus.

A colony of transformed cells was isolated from chick-embryo cells infected with a stock of nondefective Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus. The virus recovered from this colony was a stable defective mutant very similar to the Bryan strain of Rous sarcoma virus in the following characteristics: (i) noninfectiousness of virus particles released from transformed cells that lack helper factor; (ii) formation of infectious pseudotypes by coinfection with avian leukosis virus or by interaction with endogenous-helper factor in chicken cells; (iii) ability of the noninfectious form of virus to transform chick-embryo cells in the presence of ultraviolet light-inactivated Sendai virus; (iv) absence of glycoprotein in the noninfectious form; (v) failure to produce nondefective virus by recombination with avian leukosis virus; and (vi) segregation of polymerase-negative virus. The morphology of transformed cells is characteristic of those infected by the Schmidt-Ruppin strain. The demonstration of segregation of such a defective virus from nondefective sarcoma virus and failure to detect revertants of this mutant suggest that the deletion of some genes may be involved in this mutation.