The characteristics of Moloney leukemia virus (M-MuLV) gp71 binding on lymphoid cells have been studied by a very sensitive assay. Analysis of the results indicated the presence of 1 class of high affinity binding sites (Ka = 1.2 X 10(9) M-1) on BALB/c thymus cells. The total number of binding sites was estimated around 1.3 X 10(4) per thymus cell. No significative differences were observed for the binding of Moloney leukemia virus gp71 on thymus cells from different inbred strains of mice, suggesting that the genetic susceptibility to Moloney leukemia virus infection does not depend on the presence of gp71 receptor on the target cells. On the other hand, it seems that M-MuLV gp71 binds preferentially on T cells, which are the final target of Moloney leukemia virus-induced transformation. Very little binding was found on Moloney, Rauscher, or x-ray-induced lymphoma cells.