Nature 226, 184 - 185 (11 April 1970); doi:10.1038/226184a0

X-Ray Mutagenesis of Cultured Chinese Hamster Cells

B. A. BRIDGES, JEAN HUCKLE & M. J. ASHWOOD-SMITH^*

MRC Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, Didcot, Berkshire.
^*Present address: Department of Biology, University of Victoria, British Columbia.

THE development of quantitative systems for the detection of induced gene mutations in cultured mammalian cells is likely to facilitate work on hazards from environmental mutagens and on the mechanisms involved in mutagenesis. A reverse mutation system from proline auxotrophy in Chinese hamster cells has been briefly described¹, as well as a possibly similar reversion from glutamine auxotrophy and a mutation to resistance to 8-azaguanine². In contrast to previous attempts, both these systems allow the demonstration of induced as opposed to spontaneous mutation.

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