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Prophage induction and cell division in E. coli

I. Further characterization of the thermosensitive mutation tif-1 whose expression mimics the effect of UV irradiation

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Summary

An apparently single pleiotropic mutation tif-1 causing thermal induction of λ and thermal filamentation is mapped close to recA and is shown to be responsible for the thermosensitive phenotype of E. coli C 600 T44 (Goldthwait and Jacob, 1964). Expression of the tif-1 mutation mimics the effect of UV irradiation in causing several recA +-dependent events: (1) prophage induction (2) cell filamentation (both previously observed by Goldthwait and Jacob, 1964, and by Kirby, Jacob and Goldthwait, 1967) and, (3) survival of infecting UV-irradiated bacteriophage λ, and (4) mutagenesis of UV-irradiated λ. Expression of the tif-1 mutation differs from the effect of UV irradiation in two respects: (1) It has no apparent effect on bacterial DNA structure as measured biochemically (Kirby et al., 1967; Ruff et al., 1971) or as measured physiologically here by the capacity for conjugal transfer of DNA or by the capacity for causing indirect induction of λ which normally occurs after the introduction of a UV-irradiated sexual factor into a lysogenic F recipient (George and Devoret, 1971) (2) It does not increase recA +-dependent recombination between an F-lac + episome and the chromosome or between two recombination deficient λ int red phages. These results suggest that the tif + gene product participates in a reaction common to the pathway of UV induction and to the pathway of repair of UV-induced lesions in DNA.

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Castellazzi, M., George, J. & Buttin, G. Prophage induction and cell division in E. coli . Molec. Gen. Genet. 119, 139–152 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00269133

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