Reexpression of the rat hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase gene in rat-human hybrids.

Fusion of hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)(-) rat hepatoma cells with HPRT(+) human fibroblasts yielded hybrid clones that grew in HAT selective medium and contained all the rat chromosomes and one to nine human chromosomes. Among the retained chromosomes was the human X chromosome. In all clones backselected in medium containing 8-azaguanine, human X chromosome was absent. Electrophoretic analysis revealed that, without exception, hybrid clones growing in HAT medium had an active HPRT enzyme, either human or rat, or both. When these clones were backselected in 8-azaguanine, they did not show HPRT enzyme activity. Hybrids that contained the human X chromosome also had human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The observed reexpression of rat HPRT in hybrid cells derived from HPRT(-) rat cells suggests that a genetic factor from the human cell determined the expression of the rat structural gene for HPRT.