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. 1968 Nov;96(5):1672–1679. doi: 10.1128/jb.96.5.1672-1679.1968

Spontaneous and ICR191-A-induced Frameshift Mutations in the A Gene of Escherichia coli Tryptophan Synthetase

Hillard Berger a,1, William J Brammar a,2, Charles Yanofsky a
PMCID: PMC315226  PMID: 4882018

Abstract

Frameshift mutant trpA21 was isolated after ultraviolet treatment and frameshift mutant trpA540 after ICR191-A (an acridine derivative) treatment of wild-type Escherichia coli K-12. The A proteins of spontaneous and ICR191-A-induced partial revertants of these mutants contained altered amino acid sequences one residue shorter than the comparable sequence in the A protein of wild-type bacteria. The data support the conclusion that ICR191-A causes frameshift mutations. The findings further indicate that both base additions and deletions are elicited by ICR191-A treatment and that mutagenesis by this compound sometimes affects more than one base pair. ICR191-A also weakly reverts some missense mutants. Analyses of the relevant peptides of the purified A protein show single amino acid replacements compatible with single base-pair changes. In addition, we found that some spontaneously revertible ICR191-A- and ultraviolet light-induced frameshift mutants are not further stimulated to revert by exposure to ultraviolet light.

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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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