A comparison of the agar cloning and microtitration techniques for assaying cell survival and mutation frequency in L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells.

Microtitration methods for assaying cell survival and mutation frequency to ouabain resistance, 6-thioguanine resistance and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl cytosine resistance in L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells were compared to the standard agar cloning technique. The two methods gave essentially similar results for untreated cells, and after treatment with ethyl methanesulphonate and 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide. Potential advantages of the microtitration method as a routine assay system are discussed.