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. 1974 Jul;119(1):36–43. doi: 10.1128/jb.119.1.36-43.1974

Thymineless Death in Bacillus subtilis: Correlation Between Cell Lysis and Deoxyribonucleic Acid Breakdown

E Ephrati-Elizur 1, D Yosuv 1, E Shmueli 1, A Horowitz 1
PMCID: PMC245569  PMID: 4209774

Abstract

Bacillus subtilis carrying an inducible defective phage is several times more sensitive to thymineless death than a mutagenized derivative that behaves as a nonlysogen. When the integrity of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of both strains was examined during thymine starvation by transformation experiments, sedimentation studies, and measurements of acid-soluble DNA degradation products, it was shown that extensive DNA breakdown occurred only in the lysogenic strain. During thymine starvation of this strain, there is a progressive proclivity to lysis, followed by leakage of DNA and DNA degradation products. Such leakage was not observed in the nonlysogen. A correlation between proclivity to lysis and extensive DNA degradation is indicated.

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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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