Bovine lymphosarcoma: processing of bovine leukaemia virus-coded proteins.

This report describes pulse-chase experiments performed with cells infected with tumour-derived bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) and using purified gamma-globulins directed against BLV structural proteins, namely gp51, p24, p15 and p12. A gpr72 was found to be the precursor of the gp51 with a gpr70 intermediate. The p12 was shown to be derived from a pr40 with numerous intermediates (pr35, pr22, pr16 and pr14). The p24 and p15 originate from a pr42. Both the pr42 and pr40 are derived from a common pr70. A P45, a P52 and a P27 were also detected. Because these three proteins were found to accumulate progressively in cells and because they were not observed to be processed, they might play a physiological role in infected cells.