[js1138]

Explain to us how recessive traits work in bacteria.

[PatrickHenry]

Ah yes ... it's a high fly ball ... over center field ... easy out.

[Southack]

"Explain to us how recessive traits work in bacteria."

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/75/9/4470

September 1, 1978 | vol. 75 | no. 9 | 4470-4473
Copyright © 1978 by the National Academy of Sciences

Jos A. M. Van De Klundert, Peter H. Van Der Meide, PieterVan De Putte, and Leendert Bosch

Genetic analysis of a mutant of Escherichia coli resistant to the antibiotic mocimycin is presented. This resistance is due to alterations in both tuf genes coding for the elongation factor Tu. Mocimycin resistance is recessive. Bacteria carrying only one tuf gene from the resistant mutant are still mocimycin sensitive. If the mutant gene is the tufA gene, the sensitive cells can be made resistant through inactivation of the tufB gene by insertion of the bacteriophage Mu genome. Conditional mocimycin-resistant mutants can also be isolated when the tufB gene is altered by an amber or a temperature-sensitive mutation. When only the tufB allele from the original mocimycin-resistant mutant is present, inactivation of the wild-type tufA gene fails to give viable mocimycin-resistant progeny. We conclude that the tufA mutant allele codes for a functional mocimycin-resistant EF-Tu, whereas the mutant tufB gene does not code for a functional product.