We have developed a host cell reactivation assay of DNA repair utilizing UV-treated plasmid vectors. The assay primarily reflects cellular repair of transcriptional activity of damaged DNA measured indirectly as enzyme activity of the transfected genes. We studied three plasmids (pSV2cat, 5020 base pairs; pSV2catSVgpt, 7268 base pairs; and pRSVcat, 5027 base pairs) with different sizes and promoters carrying the bacterial cat gene (CAT, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) in a construction that permits cat expression in human cells. All human simian virus 40-transformed cells studied expressed high levels of the transfected cat gene. UV treatment of the plasmids prior to transfection resulted in differential decrease in CAT activity in different cell lines. With pSV2catSVgpt, UV inactivation of CAT expression was greater in the xeroderma pigmentosum group A and D lines (Do = 56 J m-2) than in the other human cell lines tested (normal, ataxia-telangiectasia, Lesch-Nyhan, retinoblastoma) (Do = 680 J m-2) (Do is the dose that reduces the percentage of CAT activity by 63% along the exponential portion of the dose-response curve). The Do of the CAT inactivation curve was 50 J-m2 for pSV2cat and for pRSVcat in the xeroderma pigmentosum group A cells. The similarity of the Do data in the xeroderma pigmentosum group A cells for three plasmids of different size and promoters implies they all have similar UV-inactivation target size. UV-induced pyrimidine dimer formation in the plasmids was quantified by assay of the number of UV-induced T4 endonuclease V-sensitive sites. In the most sensitive xeroderma pigmentosum cells, with all three plasmids, one UV-induced pyrimidine dimer inactivates a target of about 2 kilobases, close to the size of the putative CAT mRNA. We found that expression of CAT activity was much more sensitive to UV inactivation in xeroderma pigmentosum cells than in repair-proficient cells. In the xeroderma pigmentosum cells the UV-inactivation target size for cat gene expression was independent of plasmid size or promoter. Measurement of T4 endonuclease V-sensitive sites in irradiated plasmids indicates that one pyrimidine dimer inactivates a target close to the size of the putative cat transcriptional unit.MATERIALS AND METHODS Cells. The human SV40-transformed and primary skin fibroblast cell lines studied are indicated in Table 1. Cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 20 mM L-glutamine and 10o fetal calf serum.The ataxia-telangiectasia and retinoblastoma cells were grown in minimal essential medium (Eagle) with the same supplements. Cells were grown at 37°C in a CO2 concentration sufficient to keep the pH of the growth medium constant at 7.35.Plasmids. pSV2catSVgpt [7268 base pairs (bp)], pSV2cat (5020 bp), and pRSVcat (5027 bp) [a generous gift from B. Howard, constructed as described (4-7)] contain the bacterial cat gene coding for CAT (Fig. 1). The plasmid pSV2catSVgpt also contains the bacterial gpt gene coding for xanthine phosphoribosyltransferase. The ...

We used a simian virus 40-based shuttle vector plasmid, pZ189, to determine the role of pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers in UV light-induced mutagenesis in monkey cells. The vector DNA was UV irradiated and then introduced into monkey cells by transfection. After replication, vector DNA was recovered from the cells and tested for mutations in its supF suppressor tRNA marker gene by transformation of Escherichia coli carrying a nonsense mutation in the beta-galactosidase gene. When the irradiated vector was treated with E. coli photolyase prior to transfection, pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers were removed selectively. Removal of approximately 90% of the pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers increased the biological activity of the vector by 75% and reduced its mutation frequency by 80%. Sequence analysis of 72 mutants recovered indicated that there were significantly fewer tandem double-base changes and G X C----A X T transitions (particularly at CC sites) after photoreactivation of the DNA. UV-induced photoproducts remained (although at greatly reduced levels) at all pyr-pyr sites after photoreactivation, but there was a relative increase in photoproducts at CC and TC sites and a relative decrease at TT and CT sites, presumably due to a persistence of (6-4) photoproducts at some CC and TC sites. These observations are consistent with the fact that mutations were found after photoreactivation at many sites at which only cyclobutane dimers would be expected to occur. From these results we conclude that UV-induced pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers are mutagenic in DNA replicated in monkey cells.

Postmitochondrial supernatant from rat liver and kidney homogenates transformed cysteine into a mutagen that reverted bacteria of the strain Salmonella typhimurium TA100 to histidine independence. Glutathione was also activated by kidney postmitochondrial supernatant but not by liver preparations. Hence, important endogenous compounds of mammals are positive in the most commonly used short-term test for carcinogenicity and mutagenicity. Glutathione is positive in the test even at concentrations found in mammalian tissues.

Abstract— 4ells from patients with the sun sensitive cancer‐prone disease, xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) have defective repair of UV damaged DNA with reduced excision of the major photoproduct, the cyclobutane type pyrimidine dimer. Other (non‐dimer) photoproducts, have recently been implicated in UV mutagenesis. Utilizing an expression vector host cell reactivation assay, we studied UV damaged transfecting DNA that was treated by in vitro photoreactivation to reverse pyrimidine dimers while not altering other photoproducts. We found that the reduced expression of a UV damaged transfecting plasmid in XP complementation group A cells is only partially reversed by photoreactivation. E. coli photolyase treatment of pSV2catSVgpt exposed to 100 or 200 J m−2 of 254 nm radiation removed 99% of the T4 endonuclease V sensitive sites. Transfection of XP12BE(SV40) cells with photoreactivated pSV2catSVgpt showed residual inhibition corresponding to 25 to 37% of the lethal hits to the cat gene. This residual inhibition corresponds to the fraction of non‐dimer photoproducts induced by UV. This result implies that XP12BE(SV40) cells do not repair most of the non‐dimer photoproducts in DNA.

We used a simian virus 40-based shuttle vector plasmid, pZ189, to determine the role of pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers in UV light-induced mutagenesis in monkey cells. The vector DNA was UV irradiated and then introduced into monkey cells by transfection. After replication, vector DNA was recovered from the cells and tested for mutations in its supF suppressor tRNA marker gene by transformation of Escherichia coli carrying a nonsense mutation in the beta-galactosidase gene. When the irradiated vector was treated with E. coli photolyase prior to transfection, pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers were removed selectively. Removal of approximately 90% of the pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers increased the biological activity of the vector by 75% and reduced its mutation frequency by 80%. Sequence analysis of 72 mutants recovered indicated that there were significantly fewer tandem double-base changes and G X C----A X T transitions (particularly at CC sites) after photoreactivation of the DNA. UV-induced photoproducts remained (although at greatly reduced levels) at all pyr-pyr sites after photoreactivation, but there was a relative increase in photoproducts at CC and TC sites and a relative decrease at TT and CT sites, presumably due to a persistence of (6-4) photoproducts at some CC and TC sites. These observations are consistent with the fact that mutations were found after photoreactivation at many sites at which only cyclobutane dimers would be expected to occur. From these results we conclude that UV-induced pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers are mutagenic in DNA replicated in monkey cells.

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A shuttle vector plasmid, pZ189, was utilized to assess the types of mutations that cells from a patient with xeroderma pigmentosum, complementation group D, introduce into ultraviolet (UV) damaged, replicating DNA. Patients with xeroderma pigmentosum have clinical and cellular UV hypersensitivity, increased frequency of sun-induced skin cancer, and deficient DNA repair. In comparison to UV-treated pZ189 replicated in DNA repair-proficient cells, there were fewer surviving plasmids, a higher frequency of plasmids with muta-

We utilized a plasmid vector host cell reactivation assay to probe the biological functioning of DNA expression vectors and their encoded genes. We studied the effect of ultraviolet radiation or acid-heat treatment on the transient expression of genes transfected into normal human cells and into DNA repair deficient (xeroderma pigmentosum) cells and modification of gene expression by sodium butyrate. U.v. inactivation of transient expression of the bacterial gpt gene contained in a non-replicating expression vector plasmid, pSV2catSVgpt, was much greater in three xeroderma pigmentosum lines than in the four other human cell lines tested. In contrast, treatment of pSV2catSVgpt with acid and heat to produce apurinic sites resulted in a similar slope of the inactivation curve of the bacterial cat gene in the repair deficient and repair proficient cells. Thus, u.v. damage of DNA expression vectors was subject to repair by the normal host cells, but acid-heat treatment resulted in damage (apurinic sites) that was handled in a similar manner by excision repair deficient and excision repair proficient human cells. In both normal and xeroderma pigmentosum cells sodium butyrate treatment of cells resulted in a greater stimulation of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression with u.v. damaged than with undamaged plasmid. This assay thus permits examination of the effects of defined types of DNA damage on plasmid expression and study of its modulation by cellular repair activities.