Nonrandom distribution of structural mutants in ethylnitrosourea-treated cultured human lymphoblastoid cells.

Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis has been used to detect somatic cell gene mutations altering protein structure, following ethylnitrosourea treatment of cultured human lymphoblastoid cells. A total of 267 polypeptides encoded by 263 loci were scored in a series of 1143 lymphoblastoid clones. Sixty-five electrophoretic mutants were detected at a total of 49 loci. Sixteen of the 65 mutations were phenotypically repeat mutations, occurring at 11 loci. Furthermore, structural mutations occurred more frequently at loci known to be polymorphic. These results provide evidence that the mutations that are detectable at the protein level by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis do not occur at random and that their frequency is greater among polymorphic loci.