The importance of recombination in mammalian germ cells during meiosis is well established. In the absence of such a process, it would be difficult to generate the genetic diversity required for evolution. The importance of recombination in mammalian somatic cells during mitosis has not been as well established. In the last few years, however, it has become clear that several events in the life history of the cell and the organism appear to be mediated by mitotic recombination. These include immunoglobulin gene rearrangements (Shimizu and Honjo 1984), chromosomal translocations in cancer (Yunis 1983), and sister-chromatid exchange (Latt 1981). In addition to these rearrangement events, general recombination between two markers on the same chromosome recently has been demonstrated in mitotic, cultured Chinese hamster cell hybrids (Wasmuth and Hall 1984).
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Brenner et al. (1984) studied this question.