Human DNA polymerase alpha. Compensation for heat-labile mouse DNA polymerase alpha and its gene localization on the X chromosome.

The chromosomal location of human DNA polymerase alpha gene was determined by studies on somatic cell hybrids between a temperature-sensitive mutant cell line of mouse FM3A cells and normal human lymphocytes or a line of human diploid fibroblasts derived from a patient with the fragile X syndrome. A temperature-sensitive mutant, FT20-M6, a 6-thioguanine-resistant derivative of tsFT20, has heat-labile DNA polymerase alpha. Interspecific cell hybrids between FT20-M6 and human cells grew at the non-permissive temperature, indicating that some human chromosomes can compensate for the temperature-sensitive defect of tsFT20 in mouse-human cell hybrids. Three of these hybrid clones were examined further, and were shown to contain heat-stable DNA polymerase alpha that was neutralized with human DNA polymerase alpha-specific monoclonal antibody. Subcloning and segregation tests of these hybrid clones showed a positive correlation between the expression of human DNA polymerase alpha and the presence of the human X chromosome. Two subclones, however, did not conform to this relationship: they grew at the nonpermissive temperature but not in hypoxanthine/amethopterin/thymidine medium. Detailed examination of the human chromosomes in these subclones revealed that these clones had only one human chromosome, an X chromosome with a terminal deletion of the long arm including the locus of the gene for hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8). From these data, the functional DNA polymerase alpha gene was located on the human X chromosome.