Fucolipid patterns of cell lines transformed by highly and weakly tumorigenic simian virus 40 and herpes simplex virus.

The fucolipids of simian virus 40 (SV40)-transformed Balb/c mouse and herpes simplex virus (HSV)-transformed hamster cells of varying degrees of tumorigenicity were examined. In the virus-transformed cell lines and in a spontaneously transformed cell line, as compared to non-transformed cell lines, there was a decrease in the incorporation of fucose radioactivity into fucolipid IV. Fucolipid IV is the least chromatographically mobile, presumably most complex fucolipid. Only in the highly transplantable SV40- and HSV-transformed cell lines was the decrease in incorporation of radioactivity in fucolipid IV as marked as that observed in oncornavirus-transformed cell lines. Similarly, only in the highly tumorigenic DNA-virus-transformed cell lines was there a significant increase in incorporation of radioactivity from radioisotopically-labeled fucose into fucolipid III as has been observed in oncornavirus-transformed cell lines.