VARIABILITY OF CHROMOSOMES OF THE INDIAN MUNTJAK IN SOMATIC-CELL HYBRIDS

Hybrids were produced between the Indian muntjak fibroblasts and rat Jensen sarcoma cell line (JF1) auxotrophic for asparagine. They were selected without cloning under conditions providing survival of parental Indian mantjak and hybrid cells. This allowed to compare the Indian muntjak chromosome variability in the parental cells and hybrids under identical culture conditions. The frequency of muntijak chromosome aberrations proved to de higher in the hybrids (up to 47 %) than in the parental cells (6.5 %). Predominant are chromosomal breaks and dicentrics. The latter are mainly formed by fusion of chromosomes 1 and 2. The most fragile are 1 and X-chromosomes. Chromosomal breaks are evently distributed along chromosome 1, and "hot" points are observed in X-chromosome. Possible mechanisms of the Indian muntjak chromosome rearrangments induced by somatic cell hybridization are discussed.