Host antigens on avian oncoviruses: evidence for virus envelope antigens related to specific chicken erythrocyte membrane antigens.

Avian sarcoma viruses (ASV) of subgroups A to D, produced by chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF), are inactivated to a high degree by rabbit antisera to the membrane antigens of adult chicken and chick embryo erythrocytes, notably by antisera to an antigen of embryo erythrocytes, which is lost by adult erythrocytes and to another antigen specific to the latter erythrocytes. Contrary to virus inactivation by anti-CEF serum reported earlier, virus inactivation by the antisera to these two age-specific antigens does not require complement and is not paralleled by virolysis but by aggregation of virions. The two antigens related, or identical, to the age-specific erythrocyte membrane antigens thus shown to be present on the virus envelope do not pre-exist, or pre-exist only in a low amount, on the CEF membrane, since the virus-inactivating capacity of their antisera is not removed by absorption with CEF. Their appearance on the virus does not depend on cell transformation but only on infection, since both antigens are found on a ts ASV mutant produced at restrictive temperature by untransformed CEF and the virus-inactivating capacity of their antisera is removed by absorption with CEF infected with Rous-associated virus (RAV-1). These findings suggest that infection of CEF by avian oncoviruses may elicit the appearance, or enhance the expression at the cell surface of antigens characteristic of another cell type which may contribute to the formation of specific virus budding sites.