Inefficient growth arrest in response to dNTP starvation stimulates gene amplification through bridge-breakage-fusion cycles.

Cells often acquire resistance to the antiproliferative agents methotrexate (MTX) or N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate (PALA) through amplification of genes encoding the target enzymes dihydrofolate reductase or carbamylphosphate synthetase/aspartate transcarbamylase/dihydroorotase (CAD), respectively. We showed previously that Syrian hamster BHK cells resistant to selective concentrations of PALA (approximately 3 x ID50) arise at a rate of approximately 10(-4) per cell per generation and contain amplifications of the CAD gene as ladder-like structures on one of the two B9 chromosomes, where CAD is normally located. We now find that BHK cells resistant to high concentrations of PALA (approximately 15 x ID50) appear only after prior exposure to selective concentrations of PALA for approximately 72 h. Furthermore, in contrast to untreated cells, BHK cells pretreated with selective concentrations of MTX give colonies in high concentrations of PALA, and cells pretreated with selective concentrations of PALA give colonies in high concentrations of MTX or 5-fluorouracil. As judged by measuring numbers of cells and metaphase cell pairs, BHK cells do not arrest completely when starved for pyrimidine nucleotides by treatment with selective concentrations of PALA for up to 72 h. We propose that DNA damage, caused when cells fail to stop DNA synthesis promptly under conditions of dNTP starvation, stimulates amplification throughout the genome by mechanisms--such as bridge-breakage-fusion cycles--that are triggered by broken DNA. Amplified CAD genes were analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization both in cells where amplification was induced by PALA pretreatment and in cells in which the amplification occurred spontaneously, before selection with PALA. The ladder-like structures that result from bridge-breakage-fusion cycles were observed in both cases.