Summary
The efficiency of recovery of P1 transductants is marker dependent and normally varies over a 25-fold range. UV irradiation of either transducing lysates or recipient cells results in a selective stimulation of the transduction of markers which are normally transduced poorly. As a result the range in frequency of transduction is reduced to about 3-fold and resembles the gene frequency distribution expected in the donor cells. We conclude that P1 transducing lysates are likely to contain a random sample of donor DNA but that the recombination system of the recipient cell exhibits a preference for the DNA of some regions over that of others. Damage to DNA presumably overrides this specificity.
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Communicated by D. Sherratt
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Newman, B.J., Masters, M. The variation in frequency with which markers are transduced by phage P1 is primarily a result of discrimination during recombination. Molec. Gen. Genet. 180, 585–589 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268064
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268064