Viral protein expression in producer and nonproducer clones of friend erythroleukemia cell lines.

Erythroleukemia cell lines HFL/d and HFL/b, derived from tumors induced in vivo in BALB/c (H-2d) and congenic BALB.B (H-2b) mice, respectively, by a polycythemia-inducing strain of Friend virus, produced both spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) and its native NB-tropic helper virus (Friend murine leukemia virus [FMuLV]) during early-passage generations in culture. Eventually each line ceased production of both infectious viruses but retained its tumorigenic potential in syngeneic hosts. Virus-producer and -nonproducer clones of these cell lines were examined for expression of proteins encoded by the SFFV or FMuLV genomes. Lysates of labeled cells were treated with various antiviral sera, and the precipitates were examined by gel electrophoresis. Expression of the FMuLV env gene-encoded precursor protein, gPr84env, was observed in all producer and most nonproducer clones, but the FMuLV gag and pol gene products, Pr65gag and Pr200gag-pol, were uniformly undetectable in nonproducer clones. All HFL/d and HFL/b clones expressed appreciable amounts of the SFFV-encoded envelope protein, gp52, including one exceptional clone which had ceased to express any FMuLV-encoded proteins. The molecular weight of this SFFV-encoded envelope protein was consistently smaller in all HFL/b clones than in HFL/d clones, regardless of their producer or nonproducer status. The virus-nonproducer phenotype thus appears to be due to shutdown of expression of the 5' portion of the FMuLV genome in two independent cell lines.