Table 3.

Biological characteristics of the L. lactis REX2 mutant

L. lactis strain	Relative survival and frequencies
	UV irradiation*	Conjugational recombination†	Plasmid conjugation‡
Wt (MG1363)	1	1	1
rexB (REX2)	0.27	0.0034	0.97
recA (VEL1122)	0.02	0.00047	1.06

For each study, results are means of at least three experiments, and standard deviation <50% of mean values. 

^*Cells were irradiated at 20 J/m². Survival of wt strain was 0.11. 

^†Recombination frequency of wt strain was 1.25 × 10⁻⁴ per viable recipient. 

^‡Plasmid pIL205 conjugational transfer in wt strain was 1.0 × 10⁻³.