Heterochromatin, Satellite DNA, and Transformed Neoplastic Cells

Abstract

Chromosome preparations of control Balb/3T3 cells stained to show heterochromatin had dark areas associated only with the centromeric regions. Two chemically transformed lines and one line transformed by simian virus 40 (SV40), all with subtetraploid modes, stained only in the centromeric heterochromatin. One SV40-transformed line and an SV40 tumor line, both with subdiploid chromosome modes, possessed, in addition to the characteristic centromeric heterochromatin, one chromosome with interstitial heterochromatin on both arms. The interstitial heterochromatin may represent induced host DNA as a result of viral infection.