Development of Competence in the Bacillus subtilis Transformation System
AUTOR(ES)
Bott, Kenneth F.
RESUMO
Competence in Bacillus subtilis, assayed by the ability of cells to be transformed with bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or transfected by phage DNA, has been shown to occur in a single semisynthetic medium with peak activity occurring 3 hr after the cessation of logarithmic growth. No step-down conditions or culture manipulations were necessary for routine transfection of 1% of the population. The results demonstrate that bacteriophage DNA is a valid assay for studying the development of competence in B. subtilis. Predictions of workers using transforming bacterial DNA, who have suggested that competence in B. subtilis is associated with a specific phase of growth, are substantiated. The peak of competence is not affected by marked differences in the rate of growth during the logarithmic phase. The effect on development of competence by this procedure of some components (including casein hydrolysate, tryptophan, and histidine) which were routinely included in the transformation medium by other investigators has been determined by use of infectious phage DNA as an assay. We have demonstrated that tryptophan, as well as histidine, increases the transformation frequency—even in strains which do not have auxotrophic demands for these components. Glutamic acid and alanine depress optimal levels of transfection.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=251923Documentos Relacionados
- Nutritional Factors Influencing the Development of Competence in the Bacillus subtilis Transformation System
- Development of Competence for Transformation Experiments in an Overnight Culture of Germinating Spores of Bacillus subtilis
- Conditions for Competence in the Bacillus licheniformis Transformation System
- Intercellular Effects on Development of Competence in Bacillus subtilis
- Transformation-deficient mutants of Bacillus subtilis impaired in competence-specific nuclease activities.