Stability of cytogenetic alterations in a human melanoma cell line and five clonal derivatives

A cytogenetic study was done on a human malignant melanoma cell line and its 5 clones. Chromosome banding analysis indicated the presence of 7 "shared" markers (M) and 9 unique markers (m) that were present only in the clones. Chromosomes 1, 5, 9, 12, 17 and 21 were involved in M-markers and chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17, 18 and 21 were involved in m-marker formation. Both parental and clonal lines had near-triploid chromosome numbers. A number of M-markers were isochromosomes of the short (p) and long (q) arms of chromosome 1. Our cytogenetic data indicate that the parental line contained subpopulations of cells that were in different stages of karyotypic evolution.