The involvement of the various determinants (type, group, and interspecies) of the major envelope glycoprotein gp71 of murine C-type viruses in rendering cells susceptible to lysis by heterologous anti-gp71 antisera has been investigated. By means of the [14C]nicotinamide release microcytotoxicity assay. It was demonstrated that the lytic activity of rabbit anti-Friend strain of murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV) gp71 serum for mouse cells releasing very high levels of F-MuLV could be neutralized by absorbing out the group but not the interspecies reactivity of this serum. Rabbit anti-F-MuLV gp71 serum with considerable residual type-specific reactivity after appropriate cell absorptions was not lytic for the F-MuLV-releasing mouse cells. In addition to the successful absorptions with mouse cells releasing F-MuLV, Gross strain of murine leukemia virus, or AKR murine leukemia virus, normal mouse embryo cells also could remove the cytotoxic reactivity of the rabbit anti-F-MuLV gp71 serum. The presence of a molecule in normal cells bearing a gp71 group-like determinant was confirmed by the ability of cell extracts to block the specific precipitation of purified gp71 in competition radioimmunoassay. The results suggested that the group determinant of gp71 was of major importance in the cytotoxic reaction and that such a determinant was also present on normal mouse cells, probably reflecting the expression of endogenous virus.
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Collins et al. (1977) studied this question.