Abstract

This paper describes genetic mapping studies with several respiration-deficient mutants of Chinese hamster fibroblasts which have a defect in complex I of the electron transport chain (NADH-coenzyme Q reductase). The mutations associated with two different complementation groups map on the X chromosome. In two cases (G14 and G20) karyotypic and isozyme analyses in hybrids have shown that a gene(s) on the mouse X chromosome complements the mutation(s) in the hamster cell mutant(s). A cosegregation analysis in hybrid cells has shown the corresponding genes to be linked to the HPRT genes (hamster-mouse hybrids of G14, and hamster-hamster hybrids for G14 and G20). By the same method the defective gene in a third mutant (G4) was also shown to be X-linked. A mutation representing a third complementation group (G11) was shown to be on an autosomal gene. These results provide an explanation for our observation that cells with recessive mutations in complementation groups I and II can be selected at relatively high frequencies.