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Bacterial Cell Division Regulation: Lysogenization of Conditional Cell Division lon^– Mutants of Escherichia coli by Bacteriophage Lambda

^a Department of Microbiology, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas 78712

ABSTRACT

The lon^– mutants of Escherichia coli grow apparently normally except that, after temporary periods of inhibition of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis, septum formation is specifically inhibited. Under these conditions, long, multinucleate, nonseptate filaments result. The lon^– mutation also creates a defect such that wild-type bacteriophage fails to lysogenize lon^– mutants efficiently and consequently forms clear plaques on a lon^– host. Two lines of evidence suggest that this failure probably results from interference with expression of the cI gene, which codes for repressor, or with repressor action:-(i) when a lon^– mutant was infected with a cII, cIII, or c Y mutant, there was an additive effect between the lon^– mutation and the c mutations upon reduction of lysogenization frequency; and (ii) lon^– mutants permitted the growth of the cro^– mutant under conditions in which the repressor was active. The isolation of mutants (tp) which gained the ability to form turbid plaques on lon^– cells is also reported.

¹ Present address: Chemistry Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138, on leave from the University of Texas at Austin.