Aberrant morphogenesis of transgenic Xenopus laevis 5-day embryos carrying Rous sarcoma virus LTR in their DNA and expressing a high level of c-Src protein kinase was found to be accompanied with a profound depression in the level of cadherins and alpha-, beta-, and gamma-(plakoglobin) catenins in their tissues, as revealed by immunohistochemical analysis. Simultaneously, an increased level of phosphotyrosine staining was detected. However, an analogous increase in the level of phosphotyrosine immunostaining and a slightly higher level of Src were also detected in tissues of originally defective but later spontaneously repaired frog embryos that displayed essentially normal patterns of staining for cadherins and catenins. Our results provide evidence that the defective morphogenesis of frog embryos expressing a high level of c-Src is characterized by the loss of the cadherin-catenin complexes. It appears that to induce frog morphogenetic malformations, the c-Src overproduction and the loss of cadherins-catenins are simultaneously required. Phosphorylation is not likely to be the cause of cadherin and catenin disappearance from the tissues of strongly aberrant frog embryos.