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. 1976 Mar;125(3):934–945. doi: 10.1128/jb.125.3.934-945.1976

Effects of chloramine on Bacillus subtilis deoxyribonucleic acid.

K Lu Shih, J Lederberg
PMCID: PMC236169  PMID: 815252

Abstract

The lesions induced in Bacillus subtilis deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) after treating bacterial cells (in vivo) and bacterial DNA (in vitro) with chloramine were studied biologically and physically. Single-strand breaks and a few double-strand scissions (at higher chloramine doses) accompanied loss of DNA-transforming activity in both kinds of treatments. Chloramine was about three times more efficient in vitro than in vivo in inducing DNA single-strand breaks. DNA was slowly chlorinated; the subsequent efficiency of producing DNA breaks was high. Chlorination of cells also reduced activity of endonucleases in cells; however, chlorinated DNA of both treatments was sensitized to cleavage by endonucleases. The procedure of extracting DNA from cells treated with chloramine induced further DNA degradation. Both treatments introduced a small fraction of alkali-sensitive lesions in DNA. DNA chlorinated in vitro showed further reduction in transforming activity as well as further degradation after incubation at 50 C for 5 h whereas DNA extracted from chloramine-treated cells did not show such a heat sensitivity.

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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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