Somatic Cell Genetics, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1980, pp. 443-453 Control of SV40 Replication by a Single Chromosome in Monkey-Hamster Cell Hybrids J.J. Garver, 1 P.L. Pearson, I P.J. Abrahams, 2 and A.J.v.d. Eb 2 I Department of Human Genetics, State University Leiden, Wassenaarseweg 72, 2333 AI Leiden, The Netherlands; and 2Department Physiological Chemistry, State University Leiden, Wassenaarseweg 72, 2333 AI Leiden, The Netherlands Received 27 June 1979--Final 30 January 1980 Abstract--Somatic cell hybrids produced between cercopithecoid monkey and Chinese hamster cells were used to assay susceptibility to SV40 viral infection in an attempt to define the primate factors that determine permis- siveness to viral replication. These cell hybrids, which differed in their primate chromosome complement, were found to differ also in their ability to sustain viral replication. A correlation was found between an ~elev{tted SV40 viral replication and the presence of the chromosomes 11 in the rhesus monkey and 12 in the African green monkey which seem to be homologous to human 11. Preliminary studies also showed that the same chromosome seems to be responsible for the ability of the cell hybrids to rescue virus from rodent-transformed cells. INTRODUCTION Tissue culture cells derived from various mammalian species vary in their ability to sustain SV40 replication. Upon infection by SV40 virus some are completely permissive for replication, leading to lytic cell death, while others appear to be resistant to productive infection and undergo an abortive infection or rarely a viral transformation. Rescue studies, in which SV40- transformed cells (containing nonreplicating viral DNA) are grown in contact with permissive cells, may lead to a low yield of SV40 virus (1). If permissive cells, such as African green monkey kidney (AGMK) cells, are artificially fused with an SV40-transformed cell line, the yield of rescued virus is greatly increased, indicating that virus replication is dependent upon certain factors present in the permissive cell genome [for a review see 443 0098-0366/80/0700-0443503.00/0 9 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation