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Papillation in Bacillus anthracis colonies: a tool for finding new mutators
Author(s) -
Yang Hanjing,
Sikavi Cameron,
Tran Katherine,
McGillivray Shauna M.,
Nizet Victor,
Yung Madeline,
Chang Aileen,
Miller Jeffrey H.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07519.x
Subject(s) - biology , bacillus anthracis , phenotype , genetics , mutation , mutant , gene , dna mismatch repair , dna repair , bacteria
Summary Colonies of Bacillus anthracis Sterne allow the growth of papillation after 6 days of incubation at 30°C on Luria–Bertani medium. The papillae are due to mutations that allow the cells to overcome the barriers to continued growth. Cells isolated from papillae display two distinct gross phenotypes (group A and group B). We determined that group A mutants have mutations in the nprR gene including frameshifts, deletions, duplications and base substitutions. We used papillation as a tool for finding new mutators as the mutators generate elevated levels of papillation. We discovered that disruption of yycJ or recJ leads to a spontaneous mutator phenotype. We defined the nprR /papillation system as a new mutational analysis system for B. anthracis . The mutational specificity of the new mutator yycJ is similar to that of mismatch repair‐deficient strains (MMR ‐ ) such as those with mutations in mutL or mutS . Deficiency in recJ results in a unique specificity, generating only tandem duplications.