V79-4 is a subline of the parental V79 cells. The V79 cell line was developed by Ford and Yerganian in 1958 from lung tissue of a young male Chinese hamster, and was originally designated Strain V. Elkind renamed the line V-79 in 1958. The clone V79-4 was isolated by E.H.Y. Chu In 1966, who had obtained the line from W. Sinclair. The cells have a high plating efficiency (80%), and a generation time of 12 to 14 hours. They have been intensively used in studies of X-ray induced damage and repair processes. The species was confirmed by Real-Time PCR.