Growth of a radiation-transformed clone of C3H 1OT1/2 cells into melanin-producing colonies.

When R25, a radiation-transformed clone of C3H 1OT1/2 cells, was plated in soft agarose, a fraction of the colonies became pigmented. The morphologies of the white and dark colonies and their cells were compared by optical, transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The transformed R25 cells had apparently differentiated into melanin-producing cells in the soft agarose, with the white colonies containing actively growing cells having only a few melanosomes, and the dark colonies being made up of stationary-phase cells filled with electronopaque melanosomes. Exposure of the R25 cells to 4.0 Gy of X-rays decreased the percentage of dark colonies, while exposure to 1% DMSO had no effect.