Reversion of the 8-azaguanine resistant phenotype of variant Chinese hamster cells treated with alkylating agents and 5-brono-2'-deoxyuridine.

From cultures of V79 Chinese hamster cells, 10 independent clones of 8-azaguanine resistant cells were isolated and subcultured. Cells from all ten clones were resistant to 1 mg/ml levels of 8-azaguanine (8-AzG), contained less than 3% of the wild type levels of the enzyme, hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HGPRT), and were unable to grow in HAT medium. The ten clones were classified according to the conditions under which they reverted to the wild type phenotype. Clones in classes I and II reverted spontaneously with frequencies of 40-10(-5) and about 3-10(-5) respectively, and the reversion frequency was independent of the density of cells of all but one of the clones in the culture medium used. Class II clones evinced increased reversion frequencies with ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), and to a lesser extent with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (budR), suggesting that these clones contained point mutations in a locus which controls HGPRT activity. The processes of reversion and toxicity appeared to be associated. Class III clones did not revert spontaneously or with BUdR and MNNG, but did revert with EMS. The reversion frequency of class I clones was not increased after treatment with EMS, MNNG or BUdR.