Abstract
Normal rat kidney cells infected with a temperature-sensitive mutant (LA23) of Rous sarcoma virus exhibit the transformed phenotype when grown at 33 degrees and the normal phenotype at 39 degrees. We have previously shown [Ash, J.F., Vogt, P.K. & Singer, S.J. (1976) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 73, 3603-3607] that the addition of protein synthesis inhibitors to LA23-infected cells grown at 33 degrees causes them to revert, over a period of 12 hr, to the normal phenotype with respect to morphological and cytoskeletal characteristics. We now show that reversion of the metabolic characteristics of the transformed phenotype to those of the normal also occurs under these conditions. LA23-infected cells show an increased rate of aerobic glycolysis at 33 degrees compared to that at 39 degrees. They also show a different sensitivity of that rate to dinitrophenol and oligomycin at 33 degrees compared to 39 degrees. Such cells grown at 33 degrees in the presence of cycloheximide or abrin rapidly recover the aerobic glycolysis characteristics of the normal phenotype. These results support the thesis that transformation by the src gene of the Rous sarcoma virus is a pleiotypic and reversible process, such as is involved in a pleiotypic enzymic modification reaction and its reversal.