Mechanism of Transformation by Rous Sarcoma Virus: Events within Adhesion Plaques

Abstract

Oncogenic transformation by Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) results in dramatic alterations in the growth properties and social behavior of infected cells (Hanafusa 1977). In addition, the transformation event is accompanied by extensive phenotypic changes in the exterior cellular architecture (Ambros et al. 1975), as well as in the organization of internal cytoplasmic structures (Weber et al. 1975; Edelman and Yahara 1976; Wang and Goldberg 1976). In these RSV-transformed cells the changes are elicited through the action of a single viral gene product called pp60v-src. This product is a 60,000-dalton phosphoprotein with the enzymic capability of phosphorylating substrate proteins on tyrosine residues (Collett and Erikson 1978; Levinson et al. 1978; Hunter and Sefton 1980). An endogenous analog of the viral pp60v-src also has been detected within normal vertebrate cells and by most criteria appears to be very similar to the viral transforming protein (Collett et al. 1978; Oppermann et al. 1979;...