The use of human adenovirus 2 in the study of the xeroderma DNA-repair defect.

Ultraviolet-irradiated adenovirus 2 assayed by counting plaques on monolayers of human fibroblast strains is up to 30-fold more sensitive than normal if the strains used as viral hosts are prepared from persons having xeroderma pigmentosum. This plaque assay has been used as an extremely discriminating technique in the study of the xeroderma repair defect. With this assay, every xeroderma fibroblast strain tested has been found to exhibit a DNA-repair defect, including those previously judged by other methods to have normal DNA repair.