Repetitive DNA sequences have been implicated in the mediation of DNA rearrangement in mammalian cells. We have tested this hypothesis by using a dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) expression vector into which candidate sequences were inserted. DHFR-Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were transfected with this vector, the amplification of which was then selected for by methotrexate (MTX) exposure. Cells transfected with the vector alone (and resistant to 0.02 or 1.0 ,uM MTX) or with a poly(dG-dT) insert (and resistant to 0.05 or 1.0 ,uM MTX) showed little change in chromosome aberrations or sister chromatid exchange frequencies. In contrast, transfection of DHFR-CHO cells with a vector containing either of two distinct 0.34-kilobase human alphoid DNA segments (and selection to 0.05 to 10.0 ,uM MTX) showed an approximately 50% increase in chromosome number and marked changes in chromosome structure, including one or two dicentric or ring forms per cell. The sister chromatid exchange frequency also increased, to more than double the frequency of that in cells transfected without insert or those containing poly(dG-dT). In situ hybridization of one 0.34-kilobase insert in some cells suggested clustering of homologous sequences in structurally abnormal recipient CHO cell chromosomes. The approach described provides an introduction to a unique means for a coordinate molecular and cytological study of dynamic changes in chromosome structure.Repetitive DNA in mammalian genomes represents a high proportion of total nuclear DNA (for reviews, see references 20 and 29). The DNA of chromosomal regions such as centromeres and telomeres, as well as that of constitutive heterochromatin, consists to a large degree of repetitive sequences which might somehow relate to functional characteristics, e.g., chromosome replication, pairing, and stability (2, 19). In addition, repeated DNA appears to be frequently associated with DNA reorganization (6,19,28,30), which in turn underlies some chromosomal rearrangements.Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR)-based plasmid vectors (15-17), which can be transfected into DHFR-deficient cells and selectively amplified by methotrexate (MTX), provide one means of deliberately perturbing chromosomal DNA content and structural behavior. Previously it was reported that in DHFR-Chinese hamster ovary (DUKX) (34) cells transfected with a plasmid expressing DHFR, there was an increase in homogeneously staining regions and dicentric chromosomes at relatively high levels of MTX and of vector amplification (17). There was little associated change in sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequency. This effect of the parent vector on chromosomes serves as a base line from which to observe the impact of different repeat sequence subunits which can be inserted into these plasmids and then coamplified with the dhfr gene. We have initiated a study of the effect of such DNA sequences on chromosome structure, as a function of their state of amplification. Specifically, it was possible to test for effects of two such sequences, the...