Isolation and characterization of spontaneously occurring mutations at the HPRT locus in V79 Chinese hamster cells

The aim of the present investigation was to screen for rare types of spontaneously occurring mutational events in order to provide information on the organization of the mammalian genome. For this purpose a hierarchical sequence of analyses is used with a first step utilizing a forward reverse mutation approach. The present paper deals with the characterization of 22 isolated mutants from 2 groups, 11 spontaneously appearing mutants and, in comparison, 11 ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutants at the HPRT locus in V79 Chinese hamster cells, by means of reverse mutation analyses using selection with medium containing L-azaserine. Nine out of the 11 mutant clones of each group could be reverted either spontaneously or induced by treatments with ethyl nitrosourea (ENU), ICR191 or 5-azacytidine (5AC), which indicates that they were caused by point mutations. Two of the revertible mutant clones of spontaneous origin were found to be resistant to HAT but not HAsT medium. These 2 6TGrHATr mutants were the only mutants isolated which could be affected by 5AC with a significant increase in reversion frequency. Chromosome aberration analysis did not indicate any enhancement in aberration frequency in the X-chromosome by 5AC treatment. Studies on the mutagenicity at the OUA locus indicated that the 5AC- and ENU-induced mutation frequencies in these 2 mutants were comparable to the effects in the parent wild-type cell line. Their cellular incorporation of 3H-hypoxanthine was enhanced in the presence of aminopterin, but decreased with L-azaserine indicating that they were phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) mutants. On the basis of these results, it is hypothesized that reversion of these 2 6TGrHATr mutants may occur by a gene amplification mechanism and that this process may be facilitated by 5AC treatment.