Transformation by Rous sarcoma virus: a cellular substrate for transformation-specific protein phosphorylation contains phosphotyrosine.

Transformation of chicken embryo fibroblasts by Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) is caused by a single viral gene, src, which encodes a phosphoprotein, pp60src, with the enzymatic activity of a protein kinase. The relative abundance of a 36,000 molecular weight (36K) phosphorylated polypeptide which can be detected by two-dimensional electrophoresis of 32P-labeled phosphoproteins is greatly increased in RSV-transformed fibroblasts. We have reported previously that phosphorylation of the 36K polypeptide is an early event in the process of transformation and that protein synthesis is not required for its appearance. Here we identify a nonphosphorylated 36K polypeptide, present in both uninfected and transformed cells, which is homologous to the 36K phosphoprotein as judged by limited proteolysis and by tryptic peptide mapping. We conclude that the 36K phosphoprotein is generated by phosphorylation of this 36K polypeptide. It has recently been shown that pp60src phosphorylates tyrosine residues in vitro: phosphotyrosine and also phosphoserine are present in the 36K phosphoprotein isolated from RSV-transformed cells. On the basis of these results we propose that the 36K polypeptide present in chicken fibroblasts is a substrate for the protein kinase activity of pp60src. Phosphorylation of this polypeptide may be important in cellular transformation by Rous sarcoma virus.