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Roots: Mutation frequency decline revisited
Author(s) -
Witkin Evelyn M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.950160613
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , gene , nonsense mutation , mutation , transcription (linguistics) , escherichia coli , mutation frequency , nonsense , suppressor , microbiology and biotechnology , missense mutation , philosophy , linguistics
‘Mutation frequency decline’ (MFD) was discovered about forty years ago, and described as the disappearance of a particular class of ultraviolet light‐induced mutations in Escherichia coli that occurred whenever protein synthesis was briefly inhibited immediately after irradiation. Later, MFD was interpreted as an excision repair anomaly uniquely affecting nonsense suppressor mutations induced in certain tRNA genes. Never fully understood, MFD has recently been linked to the newly discovered transcription‐coupled rapid repair of ultraviolet damage on the templat strand of active genes. This article recalls the emergence and development of the MFD story, and offers a new way to explain it and its relation to strand‐specific excision repair.