Lack of correlation between pp60src kinase activity and transformation parameters in cells infected with temperature-conditional mutants of Rous sarcoma virus.

The pp60src kinase activity of cells infected with temperature-conditional mutants of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), which induce only a partial transformation, was compared to the pattern of transformation parameters induced by these mutants. The tsGI251-infected cells were thermosensitive for hexose transport, fibrinolysis, morphological alterations and pp60src kinase activity, but cold-sensitive for loss of growth control. The tsGI253-infected cells were similar to tsGI251-infected cells except that they were only slightly cold-sensitive for loss of growth control and had a very low pp60src kinase activity which was temperature-insensitive. Thus, the pp60src kinase activity measured in vitro with IgG as a substrate did not correlate in a consistent way with any of the measured parameters of transformation.