GENETIC CONTROL OF RESTRICTION AND MODIFICATION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Abstract

Boyer, Herbert (Yale University, New Haven, Conn.). Genetic control of restriction and modification in Escherichia coli . J. Bacteriol. 88: 1652–1660. 1964.—Bacterial crosses with K-12 strains of Escherichia coli as Hfr donors (Hfr Hayes, Hfr Cavalli, and Hfr P4X-6) and B/r strains of E. coli as F − recipients were found to differ from crosses between K-12 Hfr donors and K-12 F − recipients in two ways: (i) recombinants ( leu, pro, lac , and gal ) did not appear at discrete time intervals but did appear simultaneously 30 min after matings were initiated, and (ii) the linkage of unselected markers to selected markers was reduced. Integration of a genetic region linked to the threonine locus of K-12 into the B/r genome resulted in a hybrid which no longer gave anomalous results in conjugation experiments. A similar region of the B strain was introduced into the K-12 strain, which then behaved as a typical B F − recipient. These observations are interpreted as the manifestation of host-controlled modification and restriction on the E. coli chromosome. This was verified by experiments on the restriction and modification of the bacteriophage lambda, F- lac , F- gal , and sex-factor, F 1 . It was found that the genetic region that controlled the mating responses of the K-12 and B/r strains also controlled the modification and restriction properties of these two strains. The genes responsible for the restricting and modifying properties of the K-12 and B strains of E. coli were found to be allelic, linked to each other, and linked to the threonine locus.