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Association of Many Regions of the Bacillus subtilis Chromosome with the Cell Membrane

^a Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302

ABSTRACT

Unsheared lysates of Bacillus subtilis 168T^– containing uniformly labeled deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) were exposed to varying doses of gamma rays to introduce double-strand scissions in the chromosome. From an estimate of the number-average molecular weight and the amount of DNA bound to membrane after irradiation, about 70 to 90 regions of the bacterial chromosome were detected in membrane fractions. Since this number was independent of the molecular weight of the DNA (i.e., the extent of fragmentation of the chromosome), it is thought to represent an upper limit in the number of membrane-binding sites per chromosome.

¹ Present address: University of California Medical School, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, San Francisco, Calif. 94122.