Affiliation:
1. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014
Abstract
Methionine auxotrophs of strains derived from
Escherichia coli
15 lose their colony-forming ability when deprived of this amino acid. Late addition of methionine to liquid cultures did not restore plating efficiency but permitted growth of surviving cells. This phenomenon, termed methionineless death (
mld
), was not observed with methionine auxotrophs of
E. coli
strains B, W, or K
12
, nor was a similar amino acidless death observed with corresponding auxotrophs of
E. coli
15 for arginine, tryptophan, proline, isoleucine, and leucine.
Mld
was not dependent upon the genetic site determining methionine auxotrophy, nor did it affect the decarboxylation of methionine or the stability of methionyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase activity of starved cells. Death was not altered by the presence of spermine or spermidine but was abolished by the methionine analogue, α-methylmethionine. Simultaneous starvation of another amino acid in a multiple auxotroph also significantly reduced
mld
, suggesting a possible role of protein synthesis. The onset of
mld
is correlated with a lower net increase of deoxyribonucleic acid.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
Cited by
7 articles.
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