Gene expressions of transferred human chromosome 8 in mouse cell lines

Gene expressions were studied for the human chromosome 8 which were introduced by microcell fusion to three mouse tumor cell lines: A9, mouse melanoma B16F10 and SCVA2 derived from SV40-transformed scid fibroblasts. Nineteen genes in the human chromosome 8 were chosen, and the presence of their transcripts in these cells was examined by RT-PCR. The data showed that most of the human genes were expressed, with a few exceptions: the indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase gene was expressed in none of these cell lines, while two other genes, calbindin and neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit (Ach Rbeta3) genes, were not expressed in the A9 and SCVA2 cell lines, respectively, suggesting some cell- or species-specific transcriptional regulations exist. These results show that the mouse cell lines carrying a human chromosome are powerful tools for chromosome-specific cDNA cloning.