Mapping of a locus correcting lack of phosphoribosylaminoimidazole carboxylase activity in Chinese hamster ovary cell Ade-D mutants to human chromosome 4.

The human phosphoribosylaminoimidazole (AIR) carboxylase locus has been until this report one of the genes encoding purine biosynthetic enzymes that had not been assigned to an individual human chromosome. Characterization of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell mutant Ade-D showed that the cell line was unable to produce IMP and accumulated AIR. CHO Ade-D cells were fused with normal human lymphocytes utilizing inactivated Sendai virus and the resulting hybrid cell lines were selected for purine prototrophy.