Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Tightly associated lipids may anchor SV40 large T antigen in plasma membrane

Nature volume 305, pages 736–738 (1983)Cite this article

Abstract

Simian virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen, a multifunctional protein necessary for lytic growth and cell transformation1, is located mainly in the nucleus2 and in small amounts on the cell surface (surface T)3–5. Surface T may have a passive role in SV40 tumour rejection by cytotoxic T cells as a component of SV40–TSTA (tumour-specific transplantation antigen)6. The unusual induction of this immune response by immunizing mice with soluble T antigen7 led us to investigate the in vitro binding of T antigen to the surface of living cells in more detail8,9. Our results show that native surface T and a minor subset of large T antigen having a high cell surface binding affinity in vitro, behave like integral membrane proteins9. Several viral proteins10–13 including SV40 T antigen14 and cellular proteins15 seem to be linked to fatty acids (acylation). To analyse whether this mechanism is involved in the stable attachment of in vitro-bound T antigen to the plasma membrane of living target cells, we determined the degree of labelling of this molecule by using target cells prelabelled with 3H-fatty acid. Here we report that T antigen extracted from unlabelled SV40-transformed cells (SV80) becomes 3H-labelled after in vitro binding to the cell surface of 3H-palmitate-prelabelled HeLa cells. These results suggest that T antigen attached externally to living cells, may be anchored by tightly linked lipids.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Tooze, J. DNA Tumor Viruses (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Pope, J. H. & Rowe, W. P. J. exp. Med. 120, 121–128 (1964).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Deppert, W. & Henning, R. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 44, 225–234 (1979).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Soule, H. R. & Butel, J. S. Virology 30, 523–532 (1979).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Henning, R., Lange-Mutschler, J. & Deppert, W. Virology 108, 325–337 (1981).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Tevethia, S. S. in Viral Oncology (ed. Klein, G.) 581–602 (Raven, New York, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chang, Ch., Luborsky, S. W. & Mora, P. T. Nature 269, 438–440 (1977).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Lange-Mutschler, J. & Henning, R. Virology 117, 173–185 (1982).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lange-Mutschler, J. & Henning, R. Virology 127, 333–344 (1983).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Schmidt, M. F. G., Bracha, M. & Schlesinger, M. J. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 76, 1687–1691 (1979).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Schmidt, M. F. G. & Schlesinger, M. J. Cell 17, 813–819 (1979).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Sefton, B. M., Trowbridge, I. S. & Cooper, J. A. Cell 31, 465–474 (1982).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Garber, E. A., Krueger, J. G., Hanafusa, H. & Goldberg, A. R. Nature 302, 161–163 (1983).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Klockmann, U. & Deppert, W. FEBS Lett. 151, 257–259 (1983).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Omary, M. B. & Trowbridge, I. S. J. biol. Chem. 256, 12888–12892 (1981).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Fiers, W. et al. Nature 273, 113–120 (1978).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Magee, A. I. & Schlesinger, M. J. Biochim. biophys. Acta 694, 279–289 (1982).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Harlow, E. L., Crawford, L. V., Pim, D. C. & Williamson, N. M. J. Virol. 39, 861–869 (1981).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Tegtmeyer, P. & Anderson, B. Virology 115, 67–74 (1981).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Kessler, S. W. J. Immun. 115, 1617–1624 (1975).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Laemmli, U. K. Nature 227, 680–685 (1970).

    Article  CAS  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Ulm, PO Box 4066, D-7900, Ulm, FRG

    Roland Henning & Jutta Lange-Mutschler

Authors
  1. Roland Henning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jutta Lange-Mutschler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Henning, R., Lange-Mutschler, J. Tightly associated lipids may anchor SV40 large T antigen in plasma membrane. Nature 305, 736–738 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/305736a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/305736a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing