Alcohol dehydrogenase mutants of Chinese hamster somatic cells resistant to allyl alcohol.

Alcohol dehydrogenase (alcohol: NAD oxidoreductase, E.C. 1.1.1.1.) mutants of Chinese hamster somatic cells were isolated as resistant to allyl alcohol (ALLR). The ALLR phenotypes of the mutant clones were reproducible with high fidelity and stable over long intervals of growth in the absence of the selecting drug. Several mutants, Adh-1, Adh-2, Adh-9 and Adh-13, resistant to allyl alcohol were characterized. They have between 15 and 40% of the alcohol dehydrogenase activity of the wild-type cell lines. This phenotype is therefore a useful marker to analyze gene segregation of somatic cell mutations and to study the expression of the genes involved in the metabolism of ethanol in mammalian cells.