IS1 transposition is enhanced by translation errors and by bacterial growth at extreme glucose levels.

- ments are known to transpose during stationary phase but not during exponential growth. Using a reporter system which involves the activation of the cryptic bgl operon in Escherichia coli, we show that the frequency of IS 1 transposition is a function of glucose concentration in the growth medium, it is increased by streptomycin amounts that are below minimum inhibitory concentra - tion (sub-MIC) and is inhibited in an rpsL150 strain with high translation accuracy. Since starved cells are known to enhance ribosome frameshifting, our data suggests that growth conditions ap - plied in this study could affect IS 1 transposition by increasing translation infidelity.