Differentiation alters the unstable expression of adenine phosphoribosyltransferase in mouse teratocarcinoma cells

Three multipotent mouse teratocarcinoma stem lines, all exhibiting unstable expression for the purine salvage enzyme adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) were used for the isolation of differentiated cell lines from neoplasms developed in syngeneic mice. Two of the stem cell lines (DAP1B and DAP1C) exhibited homozygous deficiencies for APRT expression while the third stem cell line (E140) exhibited a heterozygous deficiency (Turker, M.S., Smith, A.C., and Martin, G.M.; Somat. Cell Mol. Genet.; 10:55-69; 1984). A total of 16 morphologically differentiated cell lines were established from these neoplasms; most were no longer tumorigenic. Differentiated cell lines derived from the E140-induced tumors segregated homozygous deficient mutants in a single step, consistent with their retention of the heterozygous deficient state. Differentiated homozygous deficient cell lines gave rise to phenotypic revertants at very high frequencies (10(-1) to 10(-2)). The majority of these putative revertants, however, yielded cell-free extracts with little or no detectable APRT activity. These putative revertants were capable of adenine salvage and were therefore termed APRT pseudorevertants. Since the APRT pseudorevertant phenotype was only observed in the differentiated progeny of the APRT deficient stem cell lines, we conclude that this change in the nature of the revertant phenotype was a consequence of cellular differentiation.