DNA repair mutants in higher eukaryotes

Over the past ten years or so, we have seen a proliferation of reports of new cell lines of various vertebrate species, showing hypersensitivity to killing by DNA damaging agents. Regrettably, but predictably, there is no standard terminology to describe the mutants, and as a result the literature is liberally scattered with fragments of individualistic nomenclature. There is no way of imposing order at this stage, but it may be helpful to bring together in this chapter as much information as possible on the mutants now available. As well as being an aid for reference, this should serve as a pointer towards further investigation--either in characterizing the mutants we have, or in developing new ones to fill gaps in our knowledge.