Micronuclei containing whole chromosomes harbouring the selectable gene do not lead to mutagenesis

Loss of heterozygosity is one genetic change observed in many tumours. We do not know whether the loss of chromosomal material through micronucleus formation is a viable mechanism associated with, and possibly leading to, genetic disease. Previously, we treated L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells with four aneugens. Although these aneugens induced micronuclei containing predominantly whole chromosomes, they did not induce mutations at Tk1, the selectable gene, under the same non-toxic conditions in which they induced micronuclei. This suggested that the induction of micronuclei containing whole chromosomes was not an early event leading to phenotypically expressed mutations in these cells under the conditions used. However, it is possible that chromosome 11, on which Tk1 resides, may be under-represented in the micronucleus population. To find out the frequency of induction of micronuclei containing chromosome 11, we applied fluorescence in situ hybridization using a chromosome 11 paint to micronuclei induced by colcemid and vinblastine. We found that the numbers of micronuclei containing chromosome 11 are more than sufficient to be detectable as mutations if these micronuclei lead to viable mutants. We conclude that the formation of micronuclei containing whole chromosomes does not lead to viable, dividing mutants in this system.

Induction of multilocus mutations at the Tk1 locus after X irradiation of L5178Y cells at different times in the mitotic cycle

TK1+/- L5178Y-R16 cells were separated into G1, S and G2/M-phase populations by centrifugal elutriation and were treated with 1.5 Gy X radiation. Cells irradiated in the G1 and G2/M phases were most sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of radiation, while cells irradiated in the G2/M phase showed the highest mutant frequency at the thymidine kinase (Tk1) locus. DNA isolated from independent TK1-/- mutants was analyzed for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the Tk1 locus and two microsatellites, D11Mit48 and D11Nds7. Homogenates of each mutant were assayed for activity of galactokinase (GLK), the product of the galactokinase (Glk) gene neighboring the Tk1 gene on chromosome 11. Irradiated G1-phase cells had the highest percentage of mutants showing no LOH. The frequency of mutants with LOH at both Tk1 and D11Nds7 with no loss of GLK activity was high in all cell populations: There was no significant difference in the observed frequency of these mutants between the populations. The frequency of mutants losing GLK activity was low, particularly in cells irradiated in the S or G2/M phases. The possibility that the loss of GLK activity is not indicative of LOH at the Glk gene under the conditions of the present experiments is discussed.

Use of DNA purified in situ from cells embedded in agarose plugs for the molecular analysis of tk-/- mutants recovered in the L5178Y tk+/- 3.7.2C mutagen assay system

We have reported that tk-/- mutants recovered in the mouse L5178Y tk+/- 3.7.2C mutagen assay have often lost the tk+ allele. Allele loss in the tk-/- mutants is documented on Southern blots as the absence of a 6.3-kb Nco I fragment seen in both tk+/+ and tk+/- cell DNAs. For the routine screening of large- and small-colony tk-/- mutants DNAs for the absence of this genomic fragment, we have found that cells can be lysed in agarose plugs, and DNA of cells embedded in plugs can be purified, restricted with Nco I, electrophoresed, and analyzed on Southern blots without significant band distortion or diffusional loss of tk- specific fragments in the 2-7-kb range. Purification and restriction analysis of DNA in agarose plugs, originally developed to allow pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of very large DNA fragments, represents a convenient alternative to conventional DNA purification methods, allowing quantitative recovery of DNA from small numbers of cells, eliminating centrifugation, phenol extraction, and ethanol precipitation steps, and requiring smaller quantities of reagents.