Control of lysosomal acid phosphatase expression in man-mouse cell hybrids.

Lysosomal acid phosphatase activity in human and mouse cells was separated into multiple zones by starch gel electrophoresis. One of the two major zones in the mouse was apparently extinguished when genetic information from man and the mouse was combined in proliferating man-mouse somatic cell hybrids. The evidence suggested that the absence of the mouse lysosomal acid phosphatase (mAP-1) was influenced by the human genome. The gene coding for human acid phosphatase (hAP-1) was shown to be unlinked to the presumed human component which extinguished the mouse acid phosphatase (mAP-1). The mechanism of “extinction” is postulated to be a modification in the processing of the mouse lysosomal enzyme. A dimeric structure was suggested for acid phosphatase-1 of man, mouse, and rat since a single hybrid enzyme was expressed in man-mouse and mouse-rat somatic cell hybrids.