Isolation and characterization of BHK cells sensitive to ionizing radiation and alkylating agents.

A host-cell viral suicide enrichment procedure was used to isolate BHK strains sensitive to ionizing radiation. Of six strains surviving infection with irradiated herpes simplex virus (HSV), three were found to be more sensitive to ionizing radiation than the parental BHK cells. Thus the D0's of strains V1, V2, and V5 were 1.59, 1.41, and 1.49 Gy, respectively, while the D0 for the parental BHK strain was 1.79. Strains V1 and V2 were studied in more detail and found to exhibit hypersensitivity to ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), methyl methanesulfonate, and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, but not to uv radiation. Susceptibility to mutation in response to EMS was also compared in BHK and strains V1 and V2. The frequency of induction of ouabain-resistant cells was 140% of the parental strain in the case of strain V1 and 58% of the parental strain in the case of strain V2.