Antibodies to distal carboxyl terminal epitopes in the v-fms-coded glycoprotein do not cross-react with the c-fms gene product.

The product of the v-fms oncogene is an integral transmembrane glycoprotein that is closely related to the cell surface receptor for the macrophage colony stimulating factor, CSF-1. A fragment of the v-fms gene encoding a major portion of the extracellular amino terminal domain, the membrane-spanning segment, and the entire carboxyl terminal tyrosine kinase domain of the glycoprotein was molecularly cloned into an inducible prokaryotic expression plasmid. Polypeptide products consisting only of v-fms-coded amino acids were produced in bacteria and were used to prepare immune reagents that precipitated the v-fms-coded glycoproteins expressed in transformed cells. Whereas rabbit antisera to recombinant polypeptides detected antigenic determinants of the c-fms proto-oncogene product, seven mouse monoclonal antibodies to these same antigens reacted only with v-fms-specific epitopes. Proteolytic mapping experiments and studies with a mutant v-fms-coded glycoprotein lacking the 37 carboxyl terminal amino acids of the wild-type product showed that the monoclonal antibodies were restricted in their reactivity to epitopes at the extreme carboxyl terminus of the glycoprotein. The v-fms and c-fms gene products must differ significantly in this region.