Effects of serum deprivation on the initiation of DNA synthesis in the second generation in rat 3Y1 cells.

Rat 3Y1 cells arrested at early S by hydroxyurea traversed the remainder of S and G2 and completed mitosis after removal of the drug, irrespective of the absence of serum from the culture medium. When cells were deprived of serum for a period between early S and mitosis after removal of hydroxyurea, the cells delayed entry into S in the presence of serum in the second generation for the time length approximately equal to that of serum deprivation. When mitotic cells, which had been continuously exposed to serum after removal of hydroxyurea, were deprived of serum for the next 24 hours and then were reexposed to serum, the cells delayed entry into S for more than 24 hours (more than the time length of serum deprivation). On the other hand, the cells already deprived of serum between early S and G2 in the first generation were less delayed in entry into S after postmitotic 24-hour serum deprivation than were the cells exposed to serum between early S and G2 in the first generation. These results suggest that serum-dependent events continue to occur in the first generation for on-time entry into S in the next generation, and that these premitotic events (the potential for entry into S) decay if serum is absent for a long period of time after mitosis.