Ma. Noble et Ee. Ishiguro, TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE MUTATION IN LYTF, A NEW GENE INVOLVED IN AUTOLYSIS OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI, Journal of General Microbiology, 139, 1993, pp. 3109-3113
A temperature-sensitive mutation in a new Escherichia coli gene, locat
ed at 62.5 min on the linkage map and designated lytF, resulted in bac
teriolysis at the restrictive temperature. Temperature sensitivity and
lytF-mediated lysis were simultaneously suppressed by either of two p
reviously described unlinked mutations designated smhA1 and smhB1. The
smhA1 and smhB1 alleles were originally isolated as specific extragen
ic suppressors of temperature-sensitive mutations in three other genes
known as murH (99 min), lytD (13 min) and lytE (25 min) which conferr
ed lysis phenotypes indistinguishable from that of the lytF mutation.
The murH, lytD and lytE genes have been proposed to be related on the
bases of phenotypic similarities and the specificities of their extrag
enic suppressors. It is now further proposed that lytF belongs to this
group. The isolation of new alleles of smhA and smhB as extragenic su
ppressors of lytF further supports this proposal.