Reversion of a mutation affecting the molecular weight of HGPRT: Intragenic suppression and localization of X-linked genes

Abstract

RJK39 is a clone of Chinese hamster cells carrying a mutation which inactivates hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) and reduces the apparent molecular weight of the enzyme. Using mutagens, we have isolated subclones of RJK39 which will grow in the counterselective HAT medium. Some continue to be HGPRT-deficient and survived the selection because they are resistant to aminopterin. In all but one of the HGPRT-positive revenants, the molecular weight of the enzyme returned to the wild-type value. However, the phenotypes of several of those strains indicate they produce altered forms of HGPRT, and one can conclude that second-site mutations must be able to cause intragenic suppression of the original mutation in RJK39. One of the revertants is pseudotetraploid and functionally heterozygous at the HGPRT locus. Segregation studies with that clone localized the genes for HGPRT, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and phosphoglycerate kinase to the short arm of the Chinese hamster X chromosome.