Changes in structure and methylation pattern in a cluster of thymidine kinase genes

Cell line 101 is a thymidine kinase (TK)-positive derivative of Ltk- which contains ca. 20 copies of the herpes simplex virus TK gene organized in a tandem array. DNA methylation at three sites within the gene and flanking sequences was inversely correlated with expression: the sites were unmethylated in line 101, methylated in each of 4 TK-negative derivatives of 101, and unmethylated in each of 21 TK-positive derivatives derived from them. The same three sites were affected in most of the 20 copies of the TK gene, whereas other sites between them were not affected. Although the entire gene cluster was never lost, indicating that integration into the genome was stable, internal rearrangements occurred at a high frequency. The rearrangements had no obvious correlation with the state of methylation or with the expression of the genes.