This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Funchain, P.
Right arrow Articles by Miller, J. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Funchain, P.
Right arrow Articles by Miller, J. H.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, June 2001, p. 3737-3741, Vol. 183, No. 12
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.12.3737-3741.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Amplification of Mutator Cells in a Population as a Result of Horizontal Transfer

Pauline Funchain, Annie Yeung, Jean Stewart, Wendy M. Clendenin, and Jeffrey H. Miller*

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095

Received 6 December 2000/Accepted 2 April 2001

Mutator cells that lack the mismatch repair system (MMR-) occur at rates of 10-5 or less in laboratory populations started from wild-type cells. We show that after selection for recombinants in an interspecies mating between Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Escherichia coli, the percentage of MMR- cells rises to several percent of the recombinant population, and after a second successive mating and selection, greater than 95% of the recombinants are MMR-. Coupling a single cross and selection with either mutagenesis or selection for spontaneous mutants also results in a dramatic increase in MMR- cells. We discuss how horizontal transfer can result in mutator strains during adaptive evolution.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095. Phone: (310) 825-8460. Fax: (310) 206-3088. E-mail: jhmiller{at}mbi.ucla.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, June 2001, p. 3737-3741, Vol. 183, No. 12
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.12.3737-3741.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Hong, E. S., Yeung, A., Funchain, P., Slupska, M. M., Miller, J. H. (2005). Mutants with Temperature-Sensitive Defects in the Escherichia coli Mismatch Repair System: Sensitivity to Mispairs Generated In Vivo. J. Bacteriol. 187: 840-846 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Townsend, J. P., Nielsen, K. M., Fisher, D. S., Hartl, D. L. (2003). Horizontal Acquisition of Divergent Chromosomal DNA in Bacteria: Effects of Mutator Phenotypes. Genetics 164: 13-21 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Matic, I., Babic, A., Radman, M. (2003). 2-Aminopurine Allows Interspecies Recombination by a Reversible Inactivation of the Escherichia coli Mismatch Repair System. J. Bacteriol. 185: 1459-1461 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • de Visser, J. A. G. M. (2002). The fate of microbial mutators. Microbiology 148: 1247-1252 [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»