Demonstration of avian sarcoma virus-coded pp60src in vivo and the anti-pp60src immune response in chickens.

The avian sarcoma virus (ASV)-coded transforming protein pp60src was originally detected in vitro in ASV-transformed avian and mammalian cells in experiments involving mammalian antisera to ASV-induced tumors. It is demonstrated here that pp60src is also expressed in vivo in ASV tumors of chickens. Furthermore, the existence of the endogenous pp60src in all chicken cells does not impair the immune response to exogenous pp60src in the chicken. Whereas chicken antibodies can bind to pp60src, they do not serve as substrates for the protein kinase activity of this transforming protein.