[Development of mammalian somatic cell genetics]

The history of somatic cell genetics from the late 1950s to the present day is considered. Studies in this field provided for the elucidation of numerous fundamental and applied problems, including spontaneous mutagenesis, gene mapping with somatic cell hybrids, and genetic mechanisms of carcinogenesis (e.g., cell protooncogenes, oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes were revealed). The knocking-out technique allowed the effects of various genes to be analyzed.