DNA fingerprint comparison of rainbow trout and RTG-2 cell line using random amplified polymorphic DNA

The detection of genotoxic effects using in vitro cell systems can be extre mely useful in risk assessment procedures. However, care should be taken in the extrapolation of in vitro results since, amongst other factors, establ ished cell lines may deviate from the genetic characteristics of their spec ies. In this work, the genetic similarities between the RTG-2 cell line and rainbow trout individuals (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from several fish farms ha ve been studied by the RAPD technique. Results show a significant analogy i n the band patterns obtained for both systems, up to 73% of the bands compo sing the fingerprint of the RTG-2 cell line were found in all the individua ls analysed. The inter-population similarity index (Lynch, 1990), consideri ng the RTG-2 cell line as a population, gives a value of 0.931 between both systems. The dendrogram constructed from all the individuals, considering the RTG-2 cell line as just another individual of a single population, show ed that the genetic structure of the cell line was not different from those of the other individuals tested. The strong genetic similarity of both sys tems, together with the previously proven capability of the RAPD technique to detect genetic alterations caused in vitro by genotoxic agents, can be v ery useful in genetic ecotoxicological studies.