Immune complexes of simian virus 40 large T-antigen with monoclonal papovavirus protein antibodies PAb 416, PAb 402, or PAb 423 were bound to protein-A-Sepharose and then cleaved into discrete fragments by limited tryptic proteolysis. PAb 402 protected a specific cleavage site, located approximately within amino acid residues 450 -500, from tryptic proteolysis; PAb 423 protected another site within residues 675 -699. As shown by immunoblotting, 12'I-labeled PAb 416 was bound to a 17-kDa N-terminal fragment of large T-antigen (amino acid residues 1 -130), and PAb 423 was bound to several overlapping fragments derived from the C terminus of large T-antigen. These monoclonal antibodies were then used as accessibility probes to study the interaction of mRNPs with cytoplasmic large T-antigen. Whereas small T-antigen and nuclear large T-antigen were fully immunoreactive, cytoplasmic large T-antigen reacted poorly with PAb 402 or polyclonal antibodies unless the mRNP moiety was removed by treatment with EDTA/RNase A. In contrast, mRNP/T-antigen complexes were fully immunoreactive with PAb 416 or PAb 423 and did not require treatment with EDTA/RNase A. The results suggest that the binding site of PAb 402 is blocked due to the interaction with mRNPs whereas the N-terminal binding site of PAb 416 and the C-terminal binding site of PAb 423 remain accessible to antibodies. For structural analysis, large T-antigen was bound as immune complex to protein-A -Sepharose and then cleaved into discrete fragments by limited tryptic proteolysis; cleavage occurred predominantly between arginine-130 and lysine-13 1 and at several sites in the C-terminal third of large T-antigen as shown by amino acid sequence analysis [12]. In the present report, we use this cleavage technique to determine the binding sites of monoclonal antibodies PAb 416, 402, and 423 directed against large T-antigen [13, 141. These monoclonal antibodies, as well as polyclonal antibodies, are then used as accessibility probes to study the interaction of large T-antigen with mRNPs. We show that some immunoreactive sites of large T-antigen are blocked as a result of mRNP binding and become accessible Abbreviations. T-antigen, tumor antigen; SV40, simian virus 40; mRNP, messenger ribonucleoprotein; NaDodSO,, sodium dodecyl sulfate; Mops, 4-morpholinepropanesulfonic acid; IgG, immunoglobulin G; PAb, papovavirus protein antibody.