Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
    Genetics. 1991 Aug;128(4):695-701.

    Adaptive reversion of a frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli.

    Source

    Department of Cancer Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

    Abstract

    Mutation rates are generally thought not to be influenced by selective forces. This doctrine rests on the results of certain classical studies of the mutations that make bacteria resistant to phages and antibiotics. We have studied a strain of Escherichia coli which constitutively expresses a lacI-lacZ fusion containing a frameshift mutation that renders it Lac-. Reversion to Lac+ is a rare event during exponential growth but occurs in stationary cultures when lactose is the only source of energy. No revertants accumulate in the absence of lactose, or in the presence of lactose if there is another, unfulfilled requirement for growth. The mechanism for such mutation in stationary phase is not known, but it requires some function of RecA which is apparently not required for mutation during exponential growth.

    PMID:
    1916241
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC1204544
    Free PMC Article

      Supplemental Content

      Icon for HighWire Press Icon for PubMed Central

      Save items

      loading

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk