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. 1974 Dec;120(3):1274–1278. doi: 10.1128/jb.120.3.1274-1278.1974

Asymmetry and Extent of In Vivo Transcripition of R-Plasmid Deoxyribonucleic Acid in Escherichia coli

Daniel Vapnek 1, Elizabeth Spingler 1
PMCID: PMC245911  PMID: 4612013

Abstract

Deoxyribonucleic acid-ribonucleic acid (DNA-RNA) hybridization studies have been performed with R-plasmid DNA (R538-1drd) and in vivo-synthesized RNA. R-plasmid DNA was isolated from Escherichia coli K-12, and the complementary strands were separated in cesium chloride-polyuridylic acid-polyguanylic acid gradients. DNA-RNA hybridization was performed with the separated DNA strands and RNA purified from R-plasmid-carrying cells. The results demonstrated that an asymmetric transcription of the R-plasmid DNA occurs in vivo. Hybridization was only detected with the H strand (denser strand in cesium chloride-polyuridylic acid-polyguanylic acid). By determining the density of the RNA-DNA hybrid in CsCl gradients, it was estimated that greater than 60% of the nucleotide sequences in the R-plasmid DNA are transcribed in logarithmically growing E. coli cells. No R-plasmid-specific RNA was detected in E. coli cells that did not carry the plasmid.

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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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