The genetics of somatic mammalian cells

Abstract

Somatic cell genetics is an application of the concepts and techniques of microbial genetics to somatic cells of higher organisms. Applied to mammalian systems, it has made possible clone isolation, quantitation of cell reproduction, establishment of cell survival curves, somatic chromosome analysis, single gene mutations, measurement of mutagenic action, cell hybridization with and without chromosome loss, dominance determination, complementation analysis, synteny determination, and a variety of applications to medicine and to research on genetic control mechanisms.