Spontaneous and ionizing radiation induced mutations involve large events when selecting for loss of an autosomal locus

The mouse P19H22 embryonal carcinoma cell line contains two distinct chromosome 8 homologs, one derived from Mus musculus domesticus (M. domesticus) and the other derived from Mus musculus musculus (M. musculus). It also contains a deletion for the M. musculus aprt allele, which is located on chromosome 8. In this study, cells with spontaneous or induced aprt deficiencies were isolated from P19H22 and examined to determine the nature of the mutational events that had occurred. Ultraviolet radiation (UV), ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), and two forms of ionizing radiation, ¹³⁷Cs and ²⁵²Cf, were used for mutation induction. DNA preparations from the aprt deficient cells were initially screened with a Southern blot analysis and separated into two broad classes: those that had lost the M. domesticus aprt allele and those that had retained it. The overwhelming majority ( > 95%) of the spontaneous and ionizing radiation-induced mutants exhibited aprt gene loss, indicating that relatively large events had occurred and that homozygosity for the deleted region was not a lethal event. Loss of heterozygosity for syntenic markers was found to be a common event in cells exhibiting aprt gene loss. In contrast, a majority of the UV-induced mutants (61%) and a substantial minority of the EMS-induced mutants (38%) retained the aprt gene. A sequence analysis confirmed that base-pair substitutions were responsible for this class of mutation. Gene inactivation associated with hypermethylation of the promoter region was found to be a rare event and was not induced by any of the mutagenic agents tested. The results demonstrate the suitability of the P19H22 cell line for mutational studies, particularly those that are large in nature.