While investigating myoblast fusion using enveloped viruses, we unexpectedly found that the production of hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ; Sendai virus) was suppressed temperature dependently in quail myoblasts transformed with a temperature-sensitive Rous sarcoma virus, which proliferate at 35.5° but differentiate at 41°; viral production was normal at 35.5° but suppressed at 41° irrespective of the species of host cells. The production of some viruses, i.e. measles virus, influenza virus, herpes simplex virus type 1 and poliovirus, was also markedly suppressed at 41°, suggesting that a temperature of 41° affects viral infection generally. To clarify the mechanism of the suppression, the infectious pattern of HVJ was examined both at 37° and at 41° in LLC-MK2 cells. The synthesis of HVJ-specific proteins was inhibited at the transcriptional level at 41°, although viral penetration by envelope fusion was not affected. The transcriptional inhibition was also seen in quail fibroblasts, which do not express a 70-kD heat shock protein (HSP70), suggesting that HSP70 is dispensable for the inhibition of viral gene transcription at 41°. Further, when the infected cells were incubated at 41° after the viral proteins had been synthesized at 37°, viral production was also inhibited. Immunofluorescent staining of the cells exposed to 41° showed that HVJ envelope proteins formed large aggregates on the cell surface, into which both M and NP proteins were assembled. Under the electron microscope, HVJ virions appeared normal even at 41°, but were detected in clusters on the cell surface, unlike at 37°. These observations suggested that the release of HVJ virions from the cell surface was inhibited for some reason at 41°. Consequently, it was indicated that two steps, viral gene transcription and the release of virions, were inhibited at 41°.