The transforming protein of avian sarcoma viruses and its homologue in normal cells.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R L Erikson.
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The transforming protein of Rous sarcoma virus (pp60v-src) and its normal cellular homologue (pp60c-src) appear to be protein kinases that phosphorylate tyrosine in a variety of protein substrates. In addition, pp60v-src and pp60-c-src are themselves phosphorylated on serine and tyrosine. It is likely that these phosphorylations serve to regulate the function(s) of pp60v-src and pp60c-src. We have therefore characterized the sites of tyrosine phosphorylation in the two proteins. Tyrosine phosphorylation of pp60v-src in infected cells occurs mainly (if not entirely) at residue 419 in the deduced amino acid sequence of the protein. Surrounding this residue is the sequence Leu-Ile-Glu-Asp-Asn-Glu-Tyr(P)-Thr-Ala-Arg. This peptide is distinguished by the fact that three out of the four amino acids that precede the phosphorylated tyrosine are acidic in nature. These results define what may prove to be a widely used site for tyrosine phosphorylation in the regulation of cellular function. The same site was phosphorylated when partially purified pp60v-src was used in a phosphotransfer reaction in vitro. The results with pp60c-src were more complex. The site of tyrosine phosphorylation in vitro appeared to be the same as that found in pp60v-src. By contrast, phosphorylation of pp60c-src in vivo apparently occurred at a different, and currently unidentified, tyrosine residue. It is therefore possible that pp60v-src and pp60c-src respond differently to regulatory influences in the intact cell.
The phosphorylation of a normal cellular protein of molecular weight 34,000 (34K) is enhanced in Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chicken embryo fibroblasts apparently as a direct consequence of the phosphotransferase activity of the Rous sarcoma virus-transforming protein pp60src. We have prepared anti-34K serum by using 34K purified from normal fibroblasts to confirm that the transformation-specific phosphorylation described previously occurs on a normal cellular protein and to further characterize the nature of the protein. In this communication, we also show that the phosphorylation of 34K is also increased in cells transformed by either Fujinami or PRCII sarcoma virus, two recently characterized avian sarcoma viruses whose transforming proteins, although distinct from pp60src, are also associated with phosphotransferase activity. Moreover, comparative fingerprinting of tryptic phosphopeptides shows that the major site of phosphorylation of 34K is the same in all three cases.
The avian sarcoma virus transforming gene product has been identified and partially purified from extracts of transformed cells. It is a phosphoprotein with a relative molecular mass of 60 000 (pp60src) with two major sites of phosphorylation. pp60src appears to be a cyclic-AMP-independent protein kinase as judged by protein phosphorylation with partly purified fractions. The specificity of the phosphorylation observed was judged by inhibition with anti-pp60src IgG but not by normal IgG and by the fact that the protein kinase activity isolated from ts transformation-mutant infected cells was more thermolabile than that from wild-type transformed cells, thus showing more directly the origin of the enzymic activity. A cellular protein substrate of pp60src has been identified as a 34 000 molecular mass protein. These data together suggest that protein phosphorylation by pp60src may be a function of the molecule that plays a major role in transformation.
The protein responsible for malignant transformation by avian sarcoma viruses (ASVs) has been identified as a phosphoprotein of molecular weight 60,000 designated pp60src (refs 1--4). It has been suggested that this protein has a functional role in cellular transformation involving the phosphorylation of cellular proteins, for it was discovered that specific immunoprecipitates from ASV-transformed cells that contain pp60src catalysed the transfer of phosphate from [gamma-32P]ATP to the heavy chain of rabbit immunoglobulin. Additional studies involving the cell-free synthesis of the ASV src protein further demonstrated that the presence of the src polypeptide correlated with that presence of a phosphotransferase activity. Our studies, involving the biochemical purification of this protein, have demonstrated that the ASV-transforming gene product, pp60src, is itself a protein kinase. We have purified the pp60src protein approximately 5,000-fold using either conventional ion-exchange chromatography or immunoaffinity chromatography. The resultant partially purified preparations contain a cyclic AMP-independent protein kinase activity. We report here that the soluble phosphotransferase activity of partially purified pp60src results in the phosphorylation of exclusively tyrosine residues in a variety of proteins that serve as substrates.
The avian sarcoma virus-transforming gene product (pp60src) appears potentially able to mediate cell transformation via phosphorylation since it is tightly associated with a protein kinase activity. We have searched for and have been able to identify a normal cellular protein that appears to be a substrate of pp60src. The phosphorylation of this protein (34K) in transformation-specific in ASV-transformed cells of both avian and mammalian origin. Moreover, the 34K polypeptide serves as a substrate for the pp60src phosphotransferase activity in vitro and is phosphorylated at a site identical to the major site of phosphorylation in vivo. These data suggest that upon transformation the 34,000-dalton protein is phosphorylated directly as a result of pp60src activity.
The Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) transforming gene product has been identified and characterized as a phosphoprotein with a molecular weight of 60,000, denoted pp60src. Partially purified pp60src displays a closely associated phosphotransferase activity with the unusual specificity of phosphorylating tyrosine residues in a variety of proteins. That the enzymatic activity observed is actually encoded by the RSV-transforming gene is indicated by the comparison of the pp60src-protein kinase isolated from cells tranformed by a wild-type RSV or by a RSV temperature-sensitive transformation mutant; these experiments revealed that the latter enzyme had a half-life of 3 min at 41 degrees C, whereas that of the wild-type enzyme was 20 min. Evidence is now beginning to accumulate showing that viral pp60src expresses its protein kinase activity in transformed cells as well as in vitro because at least one cellular protein has been identified as a substrate for this activity of pp60src. Although the protein kinase activity associated with pp60src is itself cyclic AMP (cAMP) independent, the molecule contains at least one serine residue that is directly phosphorylated by the cellular cAMP-dependent protein kinase, thus suggesting that the viral transforming gene product may be regulated indirectly by the level of cAMP. The significance of this latter observation must be regarded from the point of view that the RSV src gene is apparently derived from a normal cellular gene that seemingly expresses in normal uninfected cells a phosphoprotein structurally and functionally closely related to pp60src. This celluar protein, found in all vertebrate species tested, also is a substrate for a cAMP-dependent protein kinase of normal cells, and, therefore, may be evolved to function in a regulatory circuit involving cAMP.
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We determined the sites of synthesis of avian sarcoma virus-specific proteins in infected chicken cells by immunoprecipitation of the products synthesized in vitro by free and membrane-bound polyribosomes; 85% of Pr76, the precursor of the viral internal structural proteins (group-specific antigens), was synthesized on free polyribosomes, and 15% was synthesized on membrane-bound polyribosomes. Pr92, the lycosylated precursor of the viral glycoproteins (gp85 and gp35), was synthesized exclusively on membrane-bound polyribomes, which is consistent with its role as a membrane protein. When we investigated the site of synthesis of pp60src, the product of the avian sarcoma virus src gene, we found that 90% was synthesized on free polyribosomes, whereas 10% was detected on membrane-bound polyribosomes. The implications of these results with respect to the subcellular location of pp60src are discussed.
The product of the avian sarcoma virus (ASV) transforming gene is a 60,000-dalton phosphoprotein, pp60src. Sera from mice and from an occasional rabbit bearing ASV-induced tumors are capable of immunoprecipitating a phosphoprotein of similar, but not identical, structure from normal avian and mammalian cells. This protein is presumed to be the product of the cellular sarc gene, and has been tentatively designated pp60sarc. Analysis of the tryptic phosphopeptides reveals that the viral and avian proteins have an apparently identical phosphoserine-containing peptide. They evidently also both have an analogous phosphothreonine residue surrounded by a different amino acid sequence. Immunoprecipitates containing either the viral or normal cellular pp60 protein catalyze the transfer of radiolabeled phosphate from [gamma-32P]-ATP to the heavy chain of immune rabbit IgG, therefore suggesting that both viral and cellular phosphoproteins may be protein kinases.
Morphological revertants of avian sarcoma virus transformed vole cells contain the sarcoma gene product (pp60src) in an enzymatically active form, suggesting that the presence of pp60src protein kinase activity is infussicient to induce morphological transformation. Structural analyses of pp60src from infected vole cell clones suggest that in one of the revertant clones on alteration in pp60src may be responsible for morphological reversion while in a second clone, reversion may result from an alteration in a cell gene product with which pp60src must interact. As these morphological revertant cells are tumorigenic, different cell components are required to interact with pp60src to facilitate the two events.
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The avian sarcoma virus transforming gene product pp60src has been partially purified by using ion exchange or immunoaffinity chromatography. These preparations contain a cyclic AMP-independent protein kinase activity capable of transferring radiolabel from [gamma-32P]ATP to immune rabbit IgG, casein, and the heavy chain purified from normal rabbit IgG. The casein kinase activity is specifically inhibited by anti-pp60src IgG. Comparison of the pp60src-protein kinase isolated from cells transformed by a wild-type ASV or by an ASV temperature-sensitive transformation mutant revealed that the latter product had a half-life of 3 min at 41 degrees C whereas that of the wild-type product was 20 min.
This report extends our previous studies concerning the identification and characterization of a protein from normal cells that is closely related to the avian sarcoma virus (ASV) transforming gene product pp60src. This normal cellular protein, which we have found in both avian and mammalian cells and have tentatively designated pp60sarc, was detected by immunoprecipitation of radiolabeled cell extracts with serum derived from both mice and rabbits bearing ASV-induced tumors. The normal cell pp60sarc is a 60,000-dalton phosphoprotein that is structurally similar, but not identical, to viral pp60src. The phosphorylation patterns of the normal cell and viral proteins are also similar: both contain two major phosphorylated residues, a phosphoserine located on the NH2-terminal 60% of the polypeptide and a phosphothreonine present on the COOH-terminal 40% of the molecule. In addition, the normal cell pp60sarc from both chicken and mammalian cells appears to have an associated protein kinase activity analogous to that previously described for the viral pp60src. The possible roles played by the normal cell protein pp60sarc and the ASV transforming protein pp60src in normal cellular growth and neoplastic disease, respectively, are discussed.
The biological and biochemical properties of Rous sarcoma virus-transformed and revertant field vole cells were investigated. Revertant vole cells appear morphologically similar to normal, uninfected cells, yet, like transformed vole cells, they are fully capable of growing in agar suspension and producing tumors in athymic nude mice. These highly tumorigenic, yet morphologically normal appearing, vole cells express viral-specific antigens such as the gag gene product (Pr76) but lack the env gene protein (gp85). Moreover, they contain the src gene protein, pp60src. These results support the concept of the pleiotropic nature of the src gene product and in addition suggest that pp60src may have multiply mechanisms of action. With this revertant cell system it may be feasible to distinguish between those biochemical functions of the src gene product that are important for tumorigenicity in vivo and those that are related to in vitro morphological transformation.
The avian sarcoma virus (ASV) protein responsible for cellular transformation in vitro and sarcomagenesis in animals was studied structurally with special reference to the sites of phosphorylation on the polypeptide. The product of the ASV src gene, pp60src, is a phosphoprotein of 60,000 daltons. We found that pp60src contained two major sites of phosphorylation, one involving phosphoserine and the other involving phosphothreonine and possible addtional minor sites of phosphorylation. By using N-formyl[35S]methionyl-tRNAf as a radiolabeled precursor in the cell-free synthesis of the src protein in conjunction with partial proteolysis mapping, we determined that the major phosphoserine residue was located on the amino-terminal two-thirds of the molecule and that the phosphothreonine was located on the carboxy-terminal third. We further determined that the phosphorylation of pp60src in cell extracts involved at least two protein kinases, the one that phosphorylated the major serine site being cyclic AMP dependent and the other, acting on the threonine residue, being a cyclic nucleotide-independnet phosphotransferase. Finally, analysis of the pp60src isolated from cells infected with a temperature-sensitive src gene mutant of ASV revealed that phosphorylation of the major threonine residue was severely reduced when infected cells were grown at the nonpermissive temperature, whereas a phosphorylation pattern characteristic of the wild-type pp60src was observed at the permissive temperature. As pp60src has an associated protein kinase activity, the possible involvement of phosphorylation-dephosphorylation reactions in the functional regulation of ASV transforming protein enzymatic activity is discussed.
Genetic analyses have defined a single gene (src) as that portion of the avian sarcoma virus (ASV) genome which encodes the protein directly responsible for ASV-induced neoplastic transformation. We have recently identified the polypeptide product of the src gene of the Schmidt-Ruppin (SR) strain of ASV, a 60,000-dalton phosphoprotein designated pp60(src), and have further determined that pp60(src) acts as a protein kinase. Essential to the identification and characterization of the pp60(src) protein of SR-ASV was the use of serum (TBR serum) from rabbits bearing SR-ASV-induced tumors. TBR serum was, however, strain specific, recognizing pp60(src) from SR-ASV-transformed cells only. We report here that sera from marmosets bearing tumors induced by the Bryan or SR strains of ASV (TBM sera) contain antibody which precipitates the transforming gene product from cells transformed by the SR, Bryan, Prague, or Bratislava strains of ASV. In contrast, rabbits bearing tumors induced by either the Bratislava or Bryan strains of ASV, or hamsters with SR-ASV-induced tumors did not produce antibody to pp60(src) from any strain of ASV. The 60,000-dalton polypeptides immunoprecipitated with TBM serum from cells transformed by each of the above virus strains are phosphoproteins. One-dimensional peptide mapping by limited proteolysis revealed that the pp60(src) proteins are structurally very similar, but not identical. Furthermore, all of the viral pp60(src) proteins have an associated phosphotransferase activity. In addition to detecting the viral src proteins, TBM serum was able to immunoprecipitate an antigenically related protein from normal uninfected avian cells.