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#somatic cell hybridization

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Gene Dissection and Complementation

In somatic cell hybridization, human chromosomes are lost preferentially in hybrids with

Human-mouse somatic hybrids preferentially lose human chromosomes because mouse spindle apparatus cannot stably maintain human centromeres leading to gradual elimination during successive divisions whereas mouse chromosomes segregate faithfully due to compatibility with cellular machinery. Initial fusion product contains tetraploid genome complement then human chromosomes shed randomly. Resulting clones retain one to few human chromosomes ideal for correlation mapping of genes to chromosomes. Hybrids with plant or yeast partners incompatible and nonviable making mouse partner standard for human mapping through chromosome loss phenomenon.

Ref: Hartl & Ruvolo, Genetics, 6th ed., Chapter 5: Human Chromosome Loss in Mouse Hybrids Preferential Elimination

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Gene Dissection and Complementation

Somatic cell hybridization is mainly used for

Somatic cell hybridization fuses human cells with rodent cells usually mouse creating heterokaryons containing both genomes that subsequently lose human chromosomes randomly during mitotic divisions while retaining mouse complement stably. Clones retaining different sets of human chromosomes screened for human-specific enzyme activity or DNA marker presence allow assignment of gene to particular chromosome via concordance analysis. Panel of hybrids with overlapping retention patterns refines regional localisation pioneering human gene mapping before recombinant DNA techniques enabling first physical assignments of many loci.

Ref: Griffiths et al., Introduction to Genetic Analysis, 12th ed., Chapter 12: Somatic Cell Hybrids for Physical Mapping

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