Concanavalin A as a selective agent in tissue culture for temperature-sensitive hamster cell lines.

A novel method for isolating Chinese hamster cell cultures with temperature-sensitive growth properties is described. Concanavalin A can be used as a selective agent in tissue culture to isolate lectin-resistant cell lines which exhibit colony-forming abilities at the nonpermissive temperature relative to the permissive temperature as low as 10(-4) to 10(-6). A general correlation exists between resistance to the lectin and temperature sensitivity.