title: Parasexual approaches to the study of human genetic disease.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D007621:Karyotyping; D014960:X Chromosome
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers