Abstract
Extant Escherichia coli K12 strains are phenotypically rough, their lipopolysaccharide having a complete core structure, but no O antigen. We used DNA hybridization and DNA sequencing to show that the rough phenotype of this strain is due to the presence of one of two independent mutations in the rfb gene cluster. The rfb-50 mutation, consisting of an IS5 insertion at the downstream end of rfb, is present in strain EMG2, which is representative of most K12 derivatives. The rfb-51 mutation is a deletion at the upstream end of rfb, and was found in strain WG1. A gene cloned from strain WG1 could complement the rfb-50 mutation in strain EMG2, and the complemented strain produced O antigen which was typed as O16 with cross reaction to O17.
Keywords
Escherichia coliStrain (injury)BiologyMolecular biologyMutationGeneEnterobacteriaceaeDNAGeneticsMicrobiology
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Impact of <i>rpoS</i> Deletion on <i>Escherichia coli</i> Biofilms
ABSTRACT Slow growth has been hypothesized to be an essential aspect of bacterial physiology within biofilms. In order to test this hypothesis, we employed two strains of Escher...
DNA relatedness among species of <i>Enterobacter</i> and <i>Serratia</i>
Species of Enterobacter and Serratia were examined for deoxyribonucleic acid relatedness to Klebsielleae, to atypical erwiniae, and to other members of Enterobacteriaceae. Deoxy...
The Escherichia coli K-12 "wild types" W3110 and MG1655 have an rph frameshift mutation that leads to pyrimidine starvation due to low pyrE expression levels
The widely used and closely related Escherichia coli "wild types" W3110 and MG1655, as well as their common ancestor W1485, starve for pyrimidine in minimal medium because of a ...
Identification of algF in the alginate biosynthetic gene cluster of Pseudomonas aeruginosa which is required for alginate acetylation
Mucoid strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa produce a high-molecular-weight exopolysaccharide called alginate that is modified by the addition of O-acetyl groups. To better underst...
Systematic Mutagenesis of the <i>Escherichia coli</i> Genome
ABSTRACT A high-throughput method has been developed for the systematic mutagenesis of the Escherichia coli genome. The system is based on in vitro transposition of a modified T...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1994
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 140
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 49-57
- Citations
- 242
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
242
OpenAlex
Cite This
D. Liu,
Peter R. Reeves
(1994).
Escherichia coli K12 regains its O antigen.
Microbiology
, 140
(1)
, 49-57.
https://doi.org/10.1099/13500872-140-1-49
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1099/13500872-140-1-49