Parasexual approaches to the study of human genetic disease.
We have used two different strategies to construct hybrid cells in which specific, individual human chromosomes or fragments thereof are maintained by direct selective pressure. Our first approach was to introduce a drug-resistance gene into human chromosomes using a retroviral vector, and to transfer the marked chromosomes via microcells into mouse cells. The second method was to fuse gamma-irradiated human cells with rodent cells to produce hybrids containing fragments of the human X chromosome. Such hybrid cell lines should greatly facilitate both human gene mapping and the isolation of human genes by molecular cloning. The gene-transfer technologies described here can also be used to construct cell lines in which the expression of genes involved in human diseases can be studied in vitro.
D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D007621:Karyotyping; D014960:X Chromosome
D005819:Genetic Markers