Yy. Lu et Dg. Blair, STABLE ONCOGENIC TRANSFORMATION-INDUCED BY MICROCELL-MEDIATED GENE-TRANSFER, Science in China. Series B, Chemistry, life sciences & earth sciences, 38(4), 1995, pp. 448-456
Oncogenes have been identified using DNA-mediated transfection, but th
e size of the transferable and unrearranged DNA gene rearrangement and
amplification which occur during the transfection process limit the u
se of the techniques. We have evaluated microcell-mediated gene transf
er techniques for the transfer and analysis of dominant oncogenes. MNN
G-HOS, a transformed human cell line which contained the met oncogene
mapping to human chromosome 7 was infected with retroviruses carrying
drug resistance markers and used to optimize microcell preparation and
transfer. Stable and drug-resistant hybrids containing single human c
hromosomes as well as the fod of the transformed cells containing the
activated met oncogene and intact human chromosomes were obtained. Hyb
ridization analysis with probes (i.e. collA2 pJ3.11) mapping up to 1 M
b away from met shows that the cells from the individual foci contain
different amounts of apparently unrearranged human DNA associated with
the oncogene, and the microcell-generated transformants retain more d
istal markers than those observed in either DNA- or chromosome-mediate
d transfers. In conjunction with other techniques, microcell fusion sh
ould be useful for gene mapping as well as the study of gene function
and expression in cell transformation and malignancy.