The ribosomal RNA of hamster-mouse hybrid cells

The ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of a series of hamster-mouse somatic cell hybrids was studied. Mouse 28S rRNA was separated from its hamster counterpart by a two-step procedure involving sucrose gradient centrifugation of ribosomes and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of rRNA. Both hamster and mouse types of rRNA were synthesized in the 11 hybrids tested, including hybrids containing only about one-half the haploid number of either mouse or hamster chromosomes. It appears that, for both hamster and mouse rRNA, when the chromosomes of one species constituted the majority of the chromosomes of a hybrid, a disproportionately higher percentage of rRNA of that species was present in the hybrid. Some hybrid clones, having a majority of mouse chromosomes, had a mouse rRNA cell concentration approximately four to five times higher than the concentration expected from linear extrapolation of the value found for the mouse parental cell line.