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. 1979 Feb;137(2):885–890. doi: 10.1128/jb.137.2.885-890.1979

Biochemical characterization of nonintegrated plasmid-folded chromosome complexes: sex factor F and the Escherichia coli nucleoid.

J R Miller, B C Kline
PMCID: PMC218371  PMID: 370105

Abstract

The existence of nonintegrated plasmid-chromosome complexes has been deduced in previous work from the cosedimentation of covalently closed, circular plasmids with host folded chromosomes. In the present work, it is shown that about 70 to 90% of the covalently closed, circular F deoxyribonucleic acid could be released in vitro from chromosome complexes by ribonuclease treatment but not by protease, Sarkosyl, or ethidium bromide. Consistent with the in vitro studies, Escherichia coli cells treated for 5 min with rifampin, an inhibitor of ribonucleic acid initiation, released upon lysis 90% of their plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid as freely sedimenting molecules.

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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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