A cellular protein with a molecular mass of approximately 36 kilodaltons is the presumed target protein of the src protein [the transforming protein encoded by Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)]. The cellular location of the phosphorylated 36-kilodalton protein (pp36) in chicken embryo fibroblasts transformed by the Schmidt-Ruppin strain of RSV has been investigated. In these studies, two-dimensional electrophoresis was used for detection ofthe phosphoproteins in total cell extracts and also in fractionated subcellular components. We conclude that pp36 is localized in the plasma membrane, on the basis of the following observations. (i) Fractionation of 32P-labeled cell extracts showed that pp36 is almost exclusively localized in the crude membrane fraction and no appreciable amount was found in nuclear or cytoplasmic fractions. (ii) On further fractionation ofthe crude membrane fraction, pp36 was localized mostly in the plasma membrane A recent investigation has shown that the src gene of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) encodes a 60-kilodalton (kDal) protein, pp6O-src (1). This protein was identified by immunoprecipitation from RSV-transformed cells with sera obtained from rabbits bearing tumors induced by RSV (2, 3). In addition, pp60V-SrC was synthesized in an in vitro system programmed by RSV virion RNA (4, 5). It has been established that pp60v-src is a protein kinase (2, 3,[6][7][8] and that it has the specificity of phosphorylating tyrosine residues (6, 9, 10). On the other hand, a similar cellular protein kinase, pp60'-src, has been identified in normal cells. The amount ofpp60v-src present in RSV-transformed cells seems to be at least 100 times the amount of pp60C-SrC present in uninfected cells (11)(12)(13)(14). It (16). In this paper, we report intracellular localization of the phosphorylated 36-kDal protein in plasma membrane and, using our in vitro system, we show that the membrane fraction alone can phosphorylate the 36-kDal protein.MATERIALS AND METHODS Cells and Viruses. Chicken embryo fibroblasts used in these experiments were derived from 11-day SPAFAS (specific pathogen-free avian supply) embryos and grown in Ham's F-10 medium/5% calf serum/1% chicken serum (24). Cells were infected with the Schmidt-Ruppin strain of RSV, SR-A (25), and were cultured at 370C.Labeling the Cells in Vivo. Cells transformed by SR-RSV-A were grown to confluency in culture and labeled with 32pO4 (New England Nuclear; carrier free) at 0.5-1 mCi/ml (1 Ci = 37 GBq) for 2.5 hr at 360C in phosphate-free medium. Cells were washed and lysed in lysis buffer (26)