Glycopeptides from epithelial cell mutants: temperature sensitive for the transformation phenotype.

Fucose-labelled glycopeptides obtained from the cell surfaces of normal and transformed epithelial cells were compared by co-chromatography on Sephadex G-50. The material obtained from epithelial cells transformed in vitro or from hepatoma cells in culture elutes earlier than the fucose-containing glycopeptides obtained from normal rat epithelial cells. A mutant (TS 223) of a transformed epithelial cell that is temperature-sensitive for maintenance of the transformed phenotype, varies in its Sephadex G-50 profile of cell surface glycopeptides when grown at the permissive (36 degrees C) or the non-permissive temperature (40 degrees C). When grown and labelled at 36 degrees C the gel filtration profile of the glycopeptides resembles that of transformed cells. At 40 degrees C there is an enrichment of later eluting glycopeptides. These differences are more striking in confluent-phase cultures than in log-phase culture. The differences are reversible following upward or downward shifts in growth temperature although there appears to be a lag of at least 6 h before the alteration can be demonstrated by these procedures.