Quinacrine fluorescent karyotypes of human diploid and heteroploid cell lines

Abstract

Quinacrine-fluorescence karyotypes were prepared on a series of human cell lines. WI-38 karyotypes were indistinguishable from those obtained from cultured XX blood leukocytes. WI-L2 lymphoblastoid cells were 46, XY and pseudodiploid, with a single chromosome 21 and an additional submetacentric marker whose short arm may have been derived from a No. 21. Three HeLa cell lines had several marker chromosomes in common. Three of these marker chromosomes were also present in a D98/AG line, which therefore must have been of HeLa cell origin. Another cell line of presumptive human origin was shown to be a contaminant, of mouse origin.