Abstract
Cancer cells have an elevated methionine (MET) requirement compared to normal cells and are termed MET dependent. Cancer cells were isolated in MET-restricted (MR) medium that reverted from MET dependence to MET independence. Increased MET biosynthesis was not a prerequisite for reversion to MET independence, indicating that MET dependence was not due to reduced endogenous MET synthesis. MET-independent revertants of cancer cells concomitantly reverted for some of the other properties associated with malignancy: Of the 13 MET-independent revertants isolated 5 showed increased anchorage dependence as reflected by reduced cloning efficiencies in methylcellulose; 8 showed an increased serum requirement for optimal growth; 8 showed decreased cell density in medium containing high serum; and 3 altered their cell morphology significantly. Eight of the 13 revertants have increased chromosome numbers. Thus, by selecting for MET independence, it is possible to obtain heterogeneous reduced-malignancy revertants, indicating further a relationship between altered MET metabolism and other fundamental properties of oncogenic transformation.
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Hoffman, R.M., Erbe, R.W. (2019). Linkage of Methionine Dependence and Other Features of Malignancy. In: Hoffman, R. (eds) Methionine Dependence of Cancer and Aging. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1866. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8796-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8796-2_3
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