Adenovirus recombination in normal and repair-deficient human fibroblasts

The ability of adenovirus to recombine in fibroblasts derived from several of the human cancer-prone syndromes has been examined. Cells deficient in uv-repair, namelyXeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and XP variant, are recombinant-proficient and yield 10³–10⁴ infectious virus per infected cell, as do the control fibroblasts, GM17. Similarly, Fanconi's anemia fibroblasts which are sensitive to DNA crosslinking agents and display elevated levels of karyological changes are recombination-proficient. Bloom's syndrome fibroblasts on the other hand, generally yield lower quantities of virus but the adenovirus recombination frequency is elevated some twofold, compared with values obtained in parallel experiments with GM17. The DNA structures of heterotypic Ad5 × Ad2ND1 recombinants obtained from Bloom's and from GM17 fibroblasts are similar, suggesting that the adenovirus recombination mechanism(s) in the two cell types are also similar.