Site-specific integration of H-ras in transformed rat embryo cells.

A karyotypic analysis was performed on seven independently derived clones of primary rat embryo cells transformed by the ras oncogene plus the cooperating oncogene myc. The transfected oncogenes were sometimes present in amplified copy number, with heterogeneity in the levels of amplification. Some chromosomal features, such as aberrantly banding regions and double-minute chromosomes, typical of cells carrying amplified genes, were also seen in three of the seven cell lines. Underlying this heterogeneity there was an unexpected finding. All seven lines showed a common integration site for ras on the q arm of rat chromosome 3 (3q12), though some lines also had other sites of integration. In four of the lines integration of ras was accompanied by deletion of the p arm of chromosome 3 or its possible translocation to chromosome 12.