A shuttle vector for analysis of illegitimate recombination in mammalian cells: effects of DNA topoisomerase inhibitors on deletion frequency.

To study the mechanism of illegitimate recombination in mammalian cells, we have developed a shuttle vector, pNK1, that contains three bacterial markers, amp (ApR), galK, and neo (KmR). The frequency of deletions occurring in autonomously replicating pNK1 DNA during the growth of monkey COS1 cells was measured by transfecting the plasmid into Escherichia coli cells and counting the number of galK- ApS double mutants among total KmR cells. This method allowed us to test the effects of topoisomerase inhibitors on deletion formation in mammalian cells. The DNA topoisomerase II (TopII) inhibitor, 4'-dimethylepipodophyllotoxin thenylidene-beta-D-glucoside (VM26), stimulated deletions in pNK1 DNA in monkey cells. Since VM26 does not inhibit the strand-break activity of TopII, but rather stabilizes an enzyme-DNA complex in which DNA is cleaved upon treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate, it is implicated that TopII participates in the deletion process in mammalian cells.