A new protein detected in heat resistant mutants of a murine fibrosarc
oma has been identified as a member of the hsp70 family. The protein i
s similar to the constitutive hsp70 of the parent cells with regard to
its antibody cross-reactivity, its ability to bind to an ATP affinity
column and partial amino acid sequencing. It is present in addition t
o and in similar amounts to, the constitutive isoform of the heat resi
stant mutant cells and the parent cell line. The lack of either of two
post-translational modifications common to other hsps, phosphorylatio
n and ADP-ribosylation, and the demonstration of mRNA for the novel pr
otein suggest that it is a separate gene product and not a post-transl
ational modification of the constitutive hsp70. To our knowledge, this
protein has not been described in other systems and may be important
in the expression of the heat resistant phenotype of these cells. The
in vivo phosphorylation patterns also show that hsp90 and hsp28 are he
avily phosphorylated in the heat resistant mutant, but that two other
stress proteins reported to be phosphorylated under some conditions ar
e not phosphorylated in these cells.