Survival and DNA repair in ultraviolet-irradiated haploid and diploid cultured frog cells.

Survival and repair of DNA following ultraviolet (254-nm) radiation have been investigated in ICR 2A, a cultured cell line from haploid embryos of the grassfrog, Rana pipiens. Survival curves from cells recovering in the dark gave mean lethal dose value (Do) in the range 1.5--1.7 Jm-2 for both haploid and diploid cell stocks. The only significant difference observed between haploids and diploids was in the extent of the shoulder at low fluence (Dq), the value for exponentially multiplying diploid cells (3.0 Jm-2) being higher than that found for haploids (1.2 Jm-2). Irradiation of cultures reversibly blocked in the G1 phase of the cell cycle gave survival-curve coefficients indistinguishable between haploids and diploids. Post-irradiation exposure to visible light restored colony-forming capacity and removed chromatographically estimated pyrimidine dimers from DNA at the same rates. After fluences killing 90% of the cells, complete restoration of survival was obtained after 60-min exposure to 500 foot-candles, indicating that in this range lethality is entirely photoreversible and therefore attributable to pyrimidine dimers in DNA. Dimer removal required illumination following ultraviolet exposure, intact cells and physiological temperature, implying that the photoreversal involved DNA photolyase activity. Excision-repair capacity was slight, since no loss of dimers could be detected chromatographically during up to 48 h incubation in the dark and since autoradiographically detected "unscheduled DNA synthesis" was limited to a 2-fold increase saturated at 10 Jm-2. These properties make ICR 2A frog cells useful to explore how DNA-repair pathways influence mutant yield.