FIG. 2.

Thymine starvation by SMZ in E. coli induces mazEF-mediated cell death. Viability (% survivors) is plotted against time of exposure to SMZ (10 μg/ml) of E. coli MC4100relA⁺ (WT) and its ΔmazEF derivative (ΔmazEF) in M9 liquid medium at 37°C. MC4100relA⁺ was also grown in the presence of 10 μg of SMZ/ml plus 50 μg of thymine/ml (WT+Thymine). Cell survival was determined as described in the legend to Fig. 1a.