Biosynthesis of an unglycosylated envelope glycoprotein of Rous sarcoma virus in the presence of tunicamycin.

Cells stably infected with Rous sarcoma virus were treated with tunicamycin to prevent the glycosylation of the precursor (pr92gp) to the two viral envelope glycoproteins gp85 and gp35. Pretreatment of the cells for 4 h with the antibiotic resulted in a 90% reduction in [3H]mannose incorporation into total cellular glycoproteins, intracellular viral glycoproteins, and released virus particles. Protein synthesis and virus particle formation were not significantly affected by the treatment. A new polypeptide made in the presence of the drug was identified by immunoprecipitation of pulse-labeled cell lysates with monospecific anti-gp85 and anti-gp35 sera. This polypeptide, migrating on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels as a molecule of 62,000 daltons (pr62), contained no [3H]mannose, was labeled with [S35]methionine and [3H]arginine, could not be chased into the higher-molecular-weight glycosylated form, and contained the same [3H]arginine tryptic peptides as pr92gp. The unglycosylated pr62 was still detectable 2 h after the pulse labeling of the cells. The lack of glycosylation of pr62 did not seem to reduce its stability. No clear evidence for the incorporation of this molecule or its cleavage products into viral particles could be obtained. To code for an envelope polypeptide of 62,000 daltons, only about 1,500 nucleotides or 15% of the total coding capacity of the virus are needed.