Electron Microscopy Reveals Unexpected Cytoplasm and Envelope Changes during Thymineless Death in Escherichia coli

Abstract

Thymineless death is a dramatic and medically important phenomenon, the mechanisms of which remain a mystery. Unlike most other auxotrophs in the absence of the required supplement, thymidine-requiring E. coli mutants not only go static in the absence of thymidine, but rapidly die of chromosomal damage of unclear nature.