Küng M, Stadelmann B, Brodbeck U, Bütikofer P
Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
FEBS Lett. 1997 Jun 16;409(3):333-8. doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(97)00452-3.
Resistance to the neomycin analogue G418 forms the basis of a dominant marker selection system for mammalian cells transfected with the bacterial neomycin gene. We found that COS-1 cells stably transfected with the neomycin resistance gene had a greater than 50% reduction in cell-associated glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored alkaline phosphatase (AP). A similarly reduced amount of AP was also observed in wild-type COS-1 cells incubated in the presence of G418 or other aminoglycoside antibiotics. The AP was released from cells into the culture supernatant in its GPI-anchored form. Our data suggest that the G418-induced reduction of AP involves a vesiculation process of COS-1 cells.
