Haemoglobin synthesis in fused cells.

When primitive erythroid cells from 5-day-old chick embryos are exposed to inactivated Sendai virus they do not undergo haemolysis but fuse with other cells by the normal process of cytoplasmic coalescence. In this way cells actively engaged in the synthesis of haemoglobin may be fused with others that are not. In heterokaryons formed by the fusion of such erythroid cells with cells from established mouse or hamster lines, haemoglobin synthesis initially continues at a high level, but then declines and ceases altogether within a period of about 60 h. This decline affects the synthesis of both haem and globin and reflects the activity of specific regulatory mechanism, for under these conditions other chick proteins continue to be synthesized. The haemoglobin synthesized in the heterokaryons is entirely chick, and not mouse or hamster, haemoglobin.