Evidence for functional hemizygosity at the Emtr locus in CHO cells through segregation analysis

The hypothesis of functional hemizygostiy at the emetine-resistant (Emtr, a non-X-linked recessive marker) locus in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells has been examined by segregation analysis. The frequencies and the rates of segregation of the Emtr and Thgr (thioguanine-resistant, an X-linked recessive mutation) markers were determined from hybrids constructed between an Emtr-Thgr CHO cell line and various other Chinese hamster lines (V79, M3-1, CHO, GM7S, CHW and CHL). Thgr segregants were obtained at similar frequencies (10(-2)-10(-3)) from all the hybrids. The frequency of segregation of the Emtr marker, however, was similar to that of Thgr only in the CHO x CHO hybrids and was much lower (10(-4)-10(-6)) than the CHO x other Chinese hamster hybrids. Similar results were obtained when the segregation rates for the two markers from various hybrids were determined. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that in CHO cells, the gene responsible for Emtr is present in a single (functional) copy, whereas two copies of this gene are present in other Chinese hamster lines examined.