Aphidicolin-resistant mutator strains of mouse teratocarcinoma

High level of aphidicolin resistance with multiple mutations in mouse FM3A cell mutants

Spontaneous mutants of mouse FM3A cells (AC1, AC2, and AC3), highly resistant to aphidicolin (3000-, 2500-, and 300-fold increase in resistance, respectively), were isolated by multistep selection. The DNA synthesizing activity in permeabilized cells of all three mutants was substantially resistant to aphidicolin, like that in intact cells. The DNA polymerase activity in nuclear extracts in AC1 and AC3, but not AC2, was resistant to aphidicolin. Partially purified DNA polymerase alpha from AC3, but not from AC1 or AC2, showed resistance to aphidicolin. The apparent Ki value for aphidicolin of AC3 polymerase alpha was three to four times that of the enzyme from the parent cells, but the apparent Km values of the enzyme for dCTP and dTTP were normal. All the mutants showed cross-resistance to both arabinofuranosyladenine and arabinofuranosylcytosine. The AC3 mutant had expanded deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate pools. On two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, AC1 gave a new protein (mol wt 40 kDa). The aphidicolin-resistance trait was reversible in AC2, unlike in AC1 and AC3. These results show that in mammalian cells there are at least two mechanisms of aphidicolin-resistance that involve an altered DNA polymerase alpha that is resistant to aphidicolin and simultaneous expansion of the four DNA-precursor pools.

On the DNA polymerase-a mutant: immunofluorescence assay of UV-induced thymidine dimers in Aphr-4-2 cells

Aphidicolin inhibits purified DNA polymerases-a and -d in vitro and inhibits mitosis in animal cells. The Chinese hamster V79 cell mutant, Aphr-4-2, was selected for its ability to form colonies in cultured medium supplemented with 1.0 microM aphidicolin. At this concentration, the parental wild-type V79 cells (clone 743x) have a survival rate of less than 10(-7). The mutant DNA polymerase-a is resistant to aphidicolin at concentrations that are inhibitory to the wild-type V79 DNA polymerase-a. The apparent Km for dCTP of the mutant DNA polymerase-a is consistently lower than that of the wild-type DNA polymerase-a. This mutant exhibits slow growth, mutator activity, hypersensitivity, and hypermutability to UV. We wanted to know the basis of UV hypersensitivity in this mutant. Using the antisera (UV2) raised against UV-induced thymidine dimers and a sensitive immunofluorescence assay to measure UV-induced thymidine dimers and with detection in ACAS 570 Workstation, we observed that 50% of the thymidine dimers disappeared within 5 h after irradiation and more than 80% of the dimers were removed within 24 h in both cell lines. These results indicate that the recognition, incision, and excision steps in nucleotide excision repair pathway are normal in the mutant. In order to know if there is a difference in DNA polymerase-a or -d activities in the parental V79(wt) and Aphr-4-2 cells, DNA polymerases were partially purified from the parental and the mutant cells using sequential centrifugation and column chromatographies on DEAE-cellulose (DE23 and DE52) to remove DNA polymerases-beta and -gamma. More than 90% of the enzymatic activities from both cells showed characteristics of DNA polymerase-a type on the basis of these criteria: sensitivity to butyl phenyl dGTP (1 microM) and to IgG raised against DNA polymerase-a (SJK 132-20). The results indicate that DNA replication involving a mutant DNA polymerase-a with altered affinity for dCTP may be responsible for the UV sensitivity and mutability of the mutant.