DT40
Much of our work employs a cell line called DT40. DT40 is a B cell line derived from an avian leukosis virus induced bursal lymphoma in a white leghorn chicken. It was isolated in 1985 [1] and by the early 1990s it was apparent that this line had some remarkable properties. Two papers in 1990 [2, 3] showed that it continuously diversified its immunoglobulin genes by gene conversion. Then in 1991, Jean-Marie Buerstedde and Shunichi Takeda showed that it exhibited a high frequency of homologous gene targeting [4], opening the door to the relatively straightforward genetic modification of a vertebrate cell line.
The facility with which DT40 can be genetically modified is almost unique among vertebrate, including mammalian, cell lines. Since 1991 the line has been used in genetic studies of a wide range of cell autonomous processes including immunoglobulin diversification, DNA repair, chromosome segregation, RNA metabolism, and signalling.
The power of DT40 as a genetic system have been further enhanced by public EST databases at UMIST, GSF and Delaware and the sequence of the chicken genome.
References
[1] Baba T.W. et al. (1985) Cell lines derived from avian lymphocytes exhibit two distinct phenotypes Virology 144, 139-151.
[2] Buerstedde J.-M. et al. (1990) Light chain gene conversion continues at high rate in an ALV-induced cell line EMBO J. 9, 921-927.
[3] Kim, S. et al. (1990) Ongoing diverisification of the rearranged immunoglobulin light-chain gene in a bursal lymphoma cell line Mol. Cell. Biol. 10, 3224-3231.
[4] Buerstedde J.-M. and Takeda, S. (1991) Increased ratio of targeted to random integration after transfection of chicken B cell lines Cell 67, 179-188.
