Propagation of two species of mitochondrial DNA in Chinese hamster-mouse somatic cell hybrids

Abstract

Mouse-hamster hybrid cells were analyzed for the species of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) retained using Southern blotting and hybridization with highly labeled mitochondrial DNA probes. Initial analyses were performed as soon as there were 10⁷ cells, which took between five and eight weeks from the time the fusion was performed (∼23 cell doublings). The majority of clones tested had detectable levels of both mouse and hamster mtDNA at first testing.