Selective Media Blues...

[NICHOLAS THEODORAKIS]

In article <3c3amk$479 at sifon.cc.mcgill.ca>,
 <G.Dellaire at PO-Box.McGill.CA> wrote:
>   G. Dellaire at PO-Box.McGill.CA writes:
>  I am involved in a recombination project and I would like to include a gene for selection in my constructs other than 
>Hygromycin, 
>  Tk or neo..... Does anyone know off another selection?   I want to be able to test cell lines such as xoderma pigmentosa and 
>  other DNA repair deficient cell lines that are unfortunately TK+......
> 

I seem to remember some years ago that some people were using "Ecogpt," 
(I think, E.coli, guanine phosphoribosyl transferase).  I've never used 
this myself, so my recollection is somewhat foggy (and I don't have the 
refs, as well), but I think it relies on poisoning the purine de novo 
synthesis pathway and rescuing the cells via the salvage pathway with 
xanthine, which ecogpt can use, but eucaryotic cells can not. I also seem 
to remember that not all the reagents needed were commercially available, 
so maybe this is why this method never became very popular.

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
			Nick Theodorakis
			ntheo at welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
			Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD