A selection system specific for the thy mutator phenotype

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Abstract
Thy− mutants, in addition to being resistant to arabinosyl cytosine (arcC), show cross-resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5FU). When Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were exposed to a selection system using both araC and 5FU, the resistant clones isolated were identical to thy− mutants by the following criteria: (1) all were auxotrophic for thymidine with a high reversion frequency to thymidine prototrophy; (2) those tested had a high level of dCTP relative to wild-type cells, while dTTP and dATP levels were unaffected; and (3) all tested had a 7- to 50-fold higher rate of spontaneous mutation than the wild-type strain for at least one independent genetic marker. Although spontaneous thy− mutants were rare, the frequencies of thy− mutants in untreated and mutagenized cultures are consistent with the conclusion that the thy− phenotype is the consequence of a single mutation in CHO cells.