Hprt activities and RNA phenotypes in 6-thioguanine resistant human T-lymphocytes

The phenotypic effects of mutation in the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (hprt) gene on hprt enzyme activity and hprt mRNA levels were studied in 6-thioguanine (TG) resistant human T-cell clones with various types of hprt mutation. The mean enzyme activity in 16 TG selected clones was less than 1% of the mean in unselected clones. The hprt mRNA levels, measured by a quantitative RNA/RNA solution hybridization assay, were within the normal range in 38% of the mutant clones. Reduced hprt mRNA levels were found in all of three nonsense mutations, four out of five splicing mutations, both of two clones with genomic alterations, three out of five missense mutations and one out of four frameshift mutations caused by 1-4-bp deletions. Intermediate and high enzyme activity and normal hprt mRNA levels were found in two TG selected clones where no hprt mutation was detected. Several clones with very low hprt mRNA levels were found to yield hprt cDNA by PCR amplification. These results show that hprt mutation leads to decreased steady state levels of hprt mRNA in a majority of TG resistant T-cell clones, and that many different types of hprt mutation can have this effect.