Morphological and biochemical differentiation in RSV transformed chick embryo myoblasts

Chick embryo myoblasts have been transformed with a temperature sensitive mutant of Rous Sarcoma virus (RSV ts68). At permissive temperature (36 degrees C) it is shown that transformed myoblasts have lost their ability to form myotubes as well as to express the biochemical markers of myogenic differentiation. Upon a shift to the non-permissive temperature (41 degrees C), the normal program of differentiation is restored; myotubes are formed which express muscle specific proteins.