Isolation and characterization of Chinese hamster cell mutants resistant to the cytotoxic effects of chromate.

Stable mutants resistant to the toxic anion chromate have been isolated from a variety of Chinese hamster cell lines. The mechanism of chromate toxicity is not known, but it must involve internalization via the sulfate transport pathway. All mutant lines had a defective sulfate transport system, showing a 10-fold reduction in the rate of uptake of radioactive sulfate into the cell. The chromate resistance phenotype in CHO cell mutants behave recessively in somatic cell hybrids; in other cell lines the Chr(r) phenotype was partially expressed (codominant) in cell hybrids. Complementation analysis in cell hybrids between 18 different mutant pairs failed to reveal any complementation, indicating that chromate selects mutants primarily, if not exclusively, at a single gene locus.