Transforming DNA integrates into the host chromosome.

A series of rat liver cotransformed cell lines have been constructed containing from 5 to 100 copies of a variant human growth hormone gene. We have used hybridization in situ to demonstrate that most, if not all, cotransformed sequences reside in a chromosome of the host cell. In each of four cell lines examined, hybridization was restricted to a single chromosomal site with no extrachromosomal sites apparent. The site was invariant within each line; however, each line revealed a different site of integration for transforming sequences. In two of the four lines, transforming DNA resided at or near the site of gross chromosomal rearrangements, in one line near an rDNA site, and in one line in the middle of an apparently normal chromosome. Thus, insertion is not restricted to a unique chromosome or chromosomal region.