FISH-Based Analysis of Clonally Derived CHO Cell Populations Reveals High Probability for Transgene Integration in a Terminal Region of Chromosome 1 (1q13)

A basic goal in the development of recombinant proteins is the generation of cell lines that express the desired protein stably over many generations. Here, we constructed engineered Chinese hamster ovary cell lines (CHO-S) with a pCHO-hVR1 vector that carried an extracellular domain of a VEGF receptor (VR) fusion gene. Forty-five clones with high hVR1 expression were selected for karyotype analysis. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and G-banding, we found that pCHO-hVR1 was integrated into three chromosomes, including chromosomes 1, Z3 and Z4. Four clones were selected to evaluate their productivity under non-fed, non-optimized shake flask conditions. The results showed that clones 1 and 2 with integration sites on chromosome 1 revealed high levels of hVR1 products (shake flask of approximately 800 mg/L), whereas clones 3 and 4 with integration sites on chromosomes Z3 or Z4 had lower levels of hVR1 products. Furthermore, clones 1 and 2 maintained their productivity stabilities over a continuous period of 80 generations, and clones 3 and 4 showed significant declines in their productivities in the presence of selection pressure. Finally, pCHO-hVR1 localized to the same region at chromosome 1q13, the telomere region of normal chromosome 1. In this study, these results demonstrate that the integration of exogenous hVR1 gene on chromosome 1, band q13, may create a high protein-producing CHO-S cell line, suggesting that chromosome 1q13 may contain a useful target site for the high expression of exogenous protein. This study shows that the integration into the target site of chromosome 1q13 may avoid the problems of random integration that cause gene silencing or also overcome position effects, facilitating exogenous gene expression in CHO-S cells.