Isolation and partial characterization of a cholesterol-requiring mutant of Chinese hamster ovary cells.

A sterol-requiring mutant has been isolated from mutagenized Chinese hamster ovary cells. This mutant grows normally only when cholesterol is present in the medium. Cell lysis occurs within 3 days in the absence of cholesterol. The frequency of reversion of this mutant to prototrophic growth is low (less than or equal to 10(-6). Whole cell pulse experiments with [14C]acetate or [3H]mevalonate indicate that the rate of synthesis of digitonin-precipitable material is greatly diminished in the mutant cells as compared to that in normal Chinese hamster ovary cells. Enzyme assays in vitro with crude cell extracts show that the biosynthetic conversion of mevalonate to squalene and the conversion of squalene to lanosterol are not impaired in the mutant cells. Gas-liquid chromatographic analyses of radioactive sterol composition after whole cell pulse experiments with [3H]squalene and with [3H]anosterol suggest that the fundamental enzymatic defect of the mutant is at the stage of lanosterol demethylation. When cells were grown in serum-free medium, lanosterol and dihydrolanosterol accumulated intracellularly in the mutant cells before cell lysis occurred; neither of these two intermediary sterols was detected in the wild-type cells grown under the same condition.