Application of mFISH for the analysis of chemically-induced chromosomal aberrations: a model for the formation of triradial chromosomes

Using a human lymphoblastoid cell line WTK-1, we applied multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (mFISH) technique to analyze mitomycin C (MMC)-induced chromatid exchanges, focusing especially on the triradial chromosomes. It was found that the triradial chromosomes were formed with a specific rearrangement, "recipient and donor" relationship. The exchange sites of the recipient chromosomes were on single chromatid breaks and distributed randomly throughout the interstitial, pericentromeric, and terminal regions. In counterpart, donor chromosomes exchanged on isochromatid breaks of their telomeric and/or subtelomeric regions with the single chromatid breaks of recipient chromosomes. More than 80% of the scored triradial chromosomes were formed with such rearrangements, and few acentric chromosome fragments derived from the donor chromosomes could be detected in the metaphases observed. We therefore Suggest that biological mechanisms of breakages between the recipient and donor chromosomes are different: the former due to direct DNA-damage by MMC, but the latter due to indirect DNA-damage depending on telomeric specific structure/function. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.