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Use of Fluorouracil-Uracil Combinations to Study Growth Accompanied by Insufficient Deoxyribonucleic Acid Synthesis in Bacillus cereus

^a Department of Pharmacology, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. 20005

ABSTRACT

5-Fluorouracil (FU) at a concentration of 16 µM almost totally inhibited deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis and cell division by Bacillus cereus, whereas growth continued at an exponential rate (25% of control for at least 3 h). In cultures simultaneously given 160 µM uracil (U) along with the FU, DNA synthesis still stopped, but cell division continued for one generation at the control rate and at a much slower rate beyond that; in the meantime, cell mass continued to increase at an essentially normal rate. The cells in cultures treated with FU or FU plus U were elongated and contained about half of the control content of DNA, with one nuclear area per cell instead of two. Loss of cloning ability, unlike mass increase, was always correlated with the continuing inhibition of DNA synthesis, in either FU- or U plus FU-treated cultures.

¹ Present address: Roger Williams General Hospital and Brown University, Division of Bio-Medical Sciences, Providence, R. I. 02908.

² Present address: Flow Laboratories, Inc., Rockville, Md. 20852.