The biological and antigenic roles of glycosylation were investigated in the influenza hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein using the glycosylation inhibitor tunicamycin (TM). Under conditions where only the nonglycosylated form of HA was detected by immunoprecipitation and gel electrophoresis, the migration of glycoproteins to the cell surface was observed by immunofluorescence using either monospecific or monoclonal antibody to the HA polypeptide. Analysis of the surface fluorescence in TM-treated infected cells by a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) showed that all cells exhibited fluorescence in the complete absence of glycosylation. The relative amount of HA antigen on cell surfaces was found to be reduced by only 30-40% in TM-treated cells, and this reflected a similar reduction in intracellular synthesis. Electron microscopic studies using ferritin labeling also demonstrated that the nonglycosylated HA glycoprotein was present in significant amounts on surfaces of infected cells. Virions with nonglycosylated glycoproteins were purified, and were found to have an approximate 30-fold decrease in both hemagglutinin and neuraminidase specific activities. The possible role of oligosaccharides in antigenic variation among various H1N1 strains was investigated. Immunoprecipitation reactions involving five different monoclonal antibodies and five antigenic variants of A/USSR/90/77 revealed no major antigenic differences between the glycosylated and nonglycosylated forms of HA.