Nascent DNA synthesis in ultraviolet light-irradiated mouse, human and Chinese hamster cells.

The technique of alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation was used to study newly synthesized DNA in control and ultraviolet light-irradiated mouse L, human HeLa, and Chinese hamster ovary cells. Nascent DNA molecular weight distributions did not appear to differ among the three cell lines for unirradiated cells. However, at short times after ultraviolet light irradiation, human HeLa cells appeared to synthesize more low molecular weight DNA than either mouse L or Chinese hamster ovary cells. Since this difference was not related to differences in either the rate of DNA synthesis or amount of ultraviolet damage in the irradiated cells it appeared to be a phenotypic characteristic of the cell lines tested. A parallel was noted for these three cell lines between an increase in the synthesis of low molecular weight DNA, detected on alkaline sucrose gradients, and cell killing as measured by the ability of irradiated cells to form colonies.