Analysis of DNA repair in XP–HeLa hybrids; lack of correlation between excision repair of u.v. damage and adenovirus reactivation in an XP(D)-like cell line

Hybrids formed between HeLa cells and fibroblasts from xeroderma pigmentosum group D show either HeLa sensitivity or XPD-like hypersensitivity to u.v. radiation and corresponding high or low excision repair capability. Hybrids with low repair are presumed to have lost, via chromosome segregation, the HeLa wild type D alleles. In this paper we analyse the u.v. sensitivity and excision repair capability of another hybrid, HDIA, derived spontaneously from the normally sensitive hybrid HDl. While HDIA closely resembles the XPD phenotype in terms of u.v. sensitivity and excision repair it differs from XPD because of its ability to reactivate u.v.-irradiated adenovirus 2 to an extent similar to that of its HeLa parent. This capacity functionally dissociates excision repair of chromatin-based damage from damage in a viral environment. Moreover, on the basis of complementation studies the excision repair of genomic damage by HDIA is subtly different from that of a true XPD-like hybrid, HD2. The data are discussed in terms of a second change in the defective D allele of the HDIA cell.