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TRANSFORMATION OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS TO MOTILITY AND PROTOTROPHY: MICROMANIPULATIVE ISOLATION OF BACTERIA OF TRANSFORMED PHENOTYPE

^a Department of Genetics, Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, California

ABSTRACT

STOCKER, B. A. D. (Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, Calif.). Transformation of Bacillus subtilis to motility and prototrophy: micromanipulative isolation of bacteria of transformed phenotype. J. Bacteriol. 86:797–804. 1963.—A nonmotile (nonflagellated, fla^–) try^– strain of Bacillus subtilis was transformed to fla⁺ and to try⁺ by wild - type deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at comparable rates. Bacteria of fla⁺ phenotype were recognized by their motility approximately 3 hr after uptake of DNA, and bacteria of try⁺ phenotype at about the same time by their elongation into filaments in a medium lacking tryptophan. Of phenotypically transformed bacteria of each sort isolated by micromanipulation, the majority produced only transformed progeny, a mixture of transformed and untransformed, or a mixture of two kinds of transformant. Some produced only untransformed progeny, or progeny transformed only at a locus linked to that concerned in their phenotypic transformation. In a few clones, some partial heterozygotes were present even ten generations after DNA uptake. In nonmotile clones derived from motile isolates, the unilinear transmission of motility to one to four descendants was detected; it is attributed to persistence of a corresponding number of units of some product of an unincorporated fla⁺ gene, probably flagella or cell walls each carrying several flagella. No pedigrees indicating unilinear transmission of an unincorporated fla⁺ gene were observed.

¹ Present address: Guinness-Lister Research Unit, Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, England.