Rearrangement and mutagenesis of a shuttle vector plasmid after passage in mammalian cells.

A shuttle vector plasmid that contains sequences from simian virus 40, pBR322, and a bacterial marker gene, galactokinase, has been constructed. After replication in cells permissive for virus progeny, plasmid DNA was introduced into a galactokinase-deficient bacterial strain and the relative frequency of colonies with plasmids but without galactokinase activity was determined. This assay showed that 1% of the plasmids were defective after passage in the mammalian cells. Individual mutant plasmids were examined and found to contain deletions, duplications, point mutations, and insertions of cell DNA.