Preferential accumulation of putative "dics" under non-selective conditions during in vivo progression of a murine ascites sarcoma.

The occurrence and accumulation of dicentric marker (dic) chromosomes with terminal centromeres have been documented in a murine ascites sarcoma cell line (S180) during in vivo progression of the tumour for many years. Initially, in 1975, the cell line had only one such "dic" but currently the predominant clone is represented by three such "dics". Moreover, the emergence of a new sub-clone with four dicentric markers has recently been recorded. The possible significance of the preferential accumulation of "dics" in the cell line is discussed.