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. 1971 Jan;121(1):109–116. doi: 10.1042/bj1210109

Galactose-specific messenger ribonucleic acid contents in Escherichia coli

J R Gosden 1, M I Irving 1, J O Bishop 1
PMCID: PMC1176492  PMID: 4940376

Abstract

A method is described for measuring the proportion of galactose-specific mRNA (gal-mRNA) in the total RNA extracted from pulse-labelled cells of Escherichia coli K12, by DNA–RNA hybridization with DNA prepared from bacteriophage λdg. RNA from wild-type E. coli was compared with RNA from a homogenote carrying the gal operon both in the chromosome and in a substituted sex-factor, and with RNA from a deletion strain that carried the galactose operon only in the exogenote. In each case the cultures were induced with fucose. Under these conditions the amount of gal-mRNA was found to be proportional to the content of galactokinase in the different cultures, and to the gene frequency. The amounts of gal-mRNA in an Oc mutant and an R− mutant were also proportional to the observed contents of galactokinase. In cultures repressed for the enzymes of the galactose operon with thiomethylgalactoside, the content of gal-mRNA was higher than expected from the content of galactokinase. Possible explanations of this finding are discussed.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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