Comparative tryptic peptide mapping studies suggest a role in cell transformation for the gag-related protein of avian erythroblastosis virus and avian myelocytomatosis virus strains CMII and MC29.

The gag-related proteins found in cells transformed by avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV) and the avian myelocytomatosis viruses MC29 and CMII have been compared by tryptic peptide fingerprinting. A comparison of the methionine-containing tryptic peptides of the AEV 75-kilodalton protein, the CMII 90-kilodalton protein, and the MC29 110-kilodalton protein with the gag gene product Pr76 of their naturally occurring helper leukemia viruses enabled us to distinguish those peptides related to the gag gene from the non-gag-related peptides. The 12 non-gag peptides found in the AEV 75-kilodalton protein were unique to this protein and not found in the MC29 110-kilodalton or CMII 90-kilodalton proteins. In contrast, the MC29 110-kilodalton protein shared two methionine-containing non-gag tryptic peptides with the CMII 90-kilodalton protein. When these experiments were repeated with [14C]lysine and [14C]arginine as the labeled amino acids, the MC29 110-kilodalton protein and the CMII 90-kilodalton protein were found to share 30 out of approximately 40 non-gag-related peptides. These results demonstrate that viruses with a similar transformation spectrum synthesize related proteins and suggest that the gag-related proteins represent the transforming proteins of the replication-defective avian leukemia viruses.