Efficiency of a specific albumin extinguisher locus in monochromosomal hepatoma hybrids

Fusion of hepatoma cells with cells of similar ploidy (1s) from different histogenetic origin results in the systematic and stable extinction of hepatic traits. However, doubling the ploidy of the hepatoma parent (2s) leads to the formation of hybrids in which extinction is not observed. To establish if these dosage effects reflect, as generally thought, the ineffectiveness of the extinguishers in 2s hepatoma-derived hybrids, the efficiency of a specific extinguisher was improved. Rat hepatoma cells (1s) stably and selectively extinguished for albumin, owing to the presence of a single mouse fibroblast chromosome marker M1, were fused with the original albumin producing hepatoma cells. In the dozen independent hybrid clones isolated, the M1 chromosome was retained and the rat albumin gene silenced. This proves that the albumin extinguisher is still efficient when the number of its targets is doubled. However the extinction promoted by this extinguisher was not immediate after fusion. A detailed analysis of the time course of extinction revealed that a precise number of cell divisions, seven, is required for the monochromosomal 2s hybrid cells to become extinguished. This phenotype was stable but reversible, loss of M1 chromosome leading to albumin expression. Moreover, the M1 part carrying the specific albumin extinguisher locus, Tse a, was identified as mouse chromosome 3.