[Karyotype stability of 2 continuous Chinese hamster cell lines--CHO-K1 and V-79].

Karyotypes of two continuous Chinese hamster cell lines CHO-K1 and V-79 were studied by G-banding and silver staining. Modal chromosome numbers were 20 and 21, respectively. Both the lines were characterized with a high degree of karyotype stability and constant ratio of normal and marker chromosomes. Nulli- and monosomy were recorded for 9 chromosome pairs in CHO-K1, and 8 pairs in V-79 cell lines. Modal numbers of Ag-positive NOR were 4 in CHO-K1 and 5 in V-79. A definition of the origin of the majority of marker chromosomes in both the lines (11 and 10, respectively) made it possible to establish the exact chromosome content of each cell and to determine the generalized reconstructed karyotypes of cell lines. We established the retention of diploid chromosome set of all the autosomes, the true monosomy for one X-chromosome in both the lines, and the constant extracopying of a short arm of chromosome 3 in the V-79 cell line.