[Chinese hamster cell mutant at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase locus. I. The collection of mutants and intragene complementation experiments].

A group of 59 Chinese hamster cell clones mutant for hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribozyl-transferase (HGPRT) is described. The clones were collected from selective media containing three purine analogs, 8-azaguanine, 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine. Spontaneous mutants of an independent origin induced by different mutagens were studied. They differed by the degree of the HGPRT enzyme activity and their ability to grow in the presence of purine analogs and on a counter-selective HAT medium. Mutant clones showed "abnormal" combinations of resistance to both types of selective media and also lacked cross-resistance to different analogs of hypoxanthine and guanine. A possibility of intragenics complementation between various clones was studied. The scheme of experiments on complementation is proposed to make the work less time-consuming by virtue of a simultaneous testing of a clone group. Having used the method, 383 clone combinations were analyzed and 13 complementing pairs of mutants. were found.