Engineering of Systematic Elimination of a Targeted Chromosome in Human Cells

Figure 3

HeLa cells eliminated one copy of chromosome 21. (a) Observation of GFP expression of the cells without pCMV-Cre transfection (Cre−) or with pCMV-Cre transfection and GCV selection (Cre+, GCV+). (b) Image of the nuclei from cells selected by GCV by FISH using chromosome 21 specific probe (green). DNA was stained with DAPI. (c) Colony formation of the cells transfected with pCMV-Cre or control (pEGFP-N2). The number of colonies was estimated in the selection medium containing GCV. (d) The effect of eliminating one copy of chromosome 21 on cell growth. A HeLa cell with three copies of chromosome 21 and two clones in which a copy of chromosome 21 was eliminated, clone 1 and clone 2. These clones were isolated independently. (e) Viability of the HeLa cell and two clones. Error bars represent the standard deviation calculated from three independent experiments. Asterisks indicate significant differences (), and the ns indicates nonsignificant differences (Student’s -test).

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