[African green monkey cell line RAMP simultaneously resistant to 8-azaguanine, 6-mercaptopurine, and 6-thioguanine].

African green monkey RAMT cell line was isolated from the permanent cell line 4647 in a medium containing 10 micrograms/ml 8-azaguanine, 6-mercaptopurine, and 6-thioguanine. The RAMT cells cannot grow in a medium containing thymidine, hypoxanthine, aminopterine and glycine because of the lack of hypoxanthine utilization due to hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency. It was shown that 40% of the RAMT cells contain 57-58 chromosomes, and 20% of the cells are tetraploid. Like normal karyotype of the animal, the RAMT cells have two chromosomes with nucleolar organizer regions (NOR). One of them has an additional segment on the short arm and a large NOR revealed by silver staining. The cytoplasm of the RAMT cells was not found to have mycoplasma-like particles detected by the Hoechst 33258 fluorescent method. These characteristics enable the use of the RAMT cells for somatic cell hybridization.