Open AccessRelationship of polypeptide products of the transforming gene of Rous sarcoma virus and the homologous gene of vertebrates
Author(s) -
Bartholomew M. Sefton,
Tony Hunter,
Karen Beemon
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.77.4.2059
Subject(s) - rous sarcoma virus , biology , proto oncogene tyrosine protein kinase src , gene , virus , gene product , microbiology and biotechnology , virology , genetics , gene expression , receptor
All vertebrate cells have been shown to contain a gene,sarc , that has some homology with the transforming gene of Rous sarcoma virus,src . We have compared the polypeptide products of thesarc gene, p60sarc , of human, mouse, and chicken cells with the polymorphic polypeptide product of thesrc gene, p60src , of several strains of Rous sarcoma virus by two-dimensional peptide mapping. p60sarc from chicken cells was clearly related to every viral p60src . Eleven of its 13 methionine-containing tryptic peptides were present in some viral p60src . Conversely, the other two peptides were not present in any p60src we have examined so far. The 11 peptides from p60sarc of chickens that were shared with viral p60src , however, were not all present in any single viral p60src . These 11 peptides most closely resemble those in the p60src s of B77 virus and the Prague strain of Rous sarcoma virus. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that cellularsarc is the progenitor of viralsrc . The p60sarc s of human, mouse, and chicken cells were so similar in tryptic peptide composition that they were more closely related to each other than were some viral p60src s. The two mammalian p60sarc s differed from avian p60sarc most notably in that they lacked a peptide that chicken p60sarc shares with all the viral p60src s. The similarity of these maps suggests that the sequence of the p60sarc polypeptide has diverged very little during evolution. This may imply that p60sarc is an essential cellular component.