ABSTRACT3-O-methylglucose (3-OMeG) is a nonmetabolizable glucose analog and is, therefore, suitable for transport studies. 3-OMeG and glucose compete for entry into normal and Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-transformed chick-embryo fibroblasts. Therefore, 3-OMeG can be used to study the transport of glucose in these cells. Chickembryo fibroblasts infected and transformed by RSV take up 3-OMeG at a faster rate than uninfected cells when both cell types are growing at the same rate. The rate of efflux of 3-OMeG also increases after transformation. When the uptake and the efflux reach a steady state, the intracellular concentration of 3-OMeG is equal to the concentration in the medium. This finding indicates that glucose is transported across the plasma membrane by facilitated diffusion. The V. of the transport system for 3-OMeG increases after transformation, while the affinity or Km of the system remains unchanged. We conclude that viral transformation causes a change in the plasma membrane of the infected cells by increasing either the number of molecules or the mobility of the glucose carrier.Avian or mammalian cells can be transformed in vitro by RNA tumor viruses. The transformed cells are characterized by altered morphology, random orientation, and release from density-dependent inhibition (1). One of the earliest manifestations of the transformation is an increased rate of glucose accumulation inside the cells (2, 3).Temperature-sensitive mutants of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) have been isolated (3-5). These mutants transform chick-embryo fibroblasts (CK) only at low temperature (36°), while they can infect and replicate at both high (410) and low temperatures. Thus, it is possible to distinguish between early and late events of the infection-transformation process because transformation can be initiated synchronously in the whole cell population simply by shifting the temperature of cells infected at 41°-36°.We studied (2) the rate of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-dOG) accumulation inside chick-embryo fibroblasts infected with one of the mutants described above, T5 (4). 2-deoxy-D-glucose is a glucose analog that is taken up and phosphorylated by the cell, but is not further metabolized (6, 7). 2-dOG and glucose compete with one another in normal and RSV-transformed chick-embryo fibroblasts, CK(RSV) (Venuta, unpublished).