Recombination Ability of Escherichia coli K-12 Protoplasts

Abstract

SINCE Repaske's¹ and Lederberg's² discoveries, protoplasts of Escherichia coli have formed useful material for biosynthetic and genetic studies, for example, in T-2 phage multiplication^3,4, in rehabilitation of a deficient mutant⁵ and, more recently, in recombination behaviour⁶. During the past two years great advances have been made in our understanding of genetic recombination in E. coli, especially through the finding that genetic material is transferred from F + donor into F − recipient cells^7–9. In these situations, genetic recombination between E. coli protoplasts was attempted in order to obtain further information on the properties of protoplasts and the process of genetic recombination.