Phosphopeptide fingerprints of nucleoproteins of various influenza A virus strains grown in different host cells.

MDCK, HeLa, L or primary chick embryo cells were infected with different influenza A virus strains and labelled with [32P]orthophosphate. The nucleoprotein was immunoprecipitated and digested by trypsin. The resulting tryptic fingerprints were strain-specific and dependent on the host cell in which the virus strains had been propagated. Virus mutants had different fingerprints. It is suggested that specific cellular protein phosphokinases are involved in virus replication and that these may determine host range and cell tropism by site-specific phosphorylation of viral phosphoproteins.