A fluorescence photobleaching study of vesicular stomatitis virus infected BHK cells. Modulation of G protein mobility by M protein.

The mobility of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) G protein on the surface of infected BHK cells was studied by using the technique of fluorescence photobleaching recovery. The fraction of surface G protein that was mobile in that time scale of the measurement (minutes) was at least 75%, a relatively high value among cell surface proteins so far observed. For studies of the effect of an internal viral protein (M protein) on G protein mobility, cells infected with wild-type VSV were compared with those infected with temperature-sensitive VSV mutants of complementation group III, which contains lesions in the M protein. At the permissive temperature, a pronounced decrease in the mobile fraction of surface G was observed for each of three mutants studied, while mobility of surface G at the nonpermissive temperature was indistinguishable in mutant and wild-type infected cells. A significantly lower mobile fraction of G protein was also observed in SV40 transformed 3T3 cells infected with wild-type VSV, but not in 3T3 or chick embryo fibroblast cells similarly infected. None of the variables tested had a measurable effect on the lateral diffusion coefficient of the mobile G protein. These results are interpreted as modulation of the mobility of a specific cell surface protein by a specific intracellular protein.