"Mating structures" in bacterial conjugation

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1968

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Bacterial conjugation was studied in synchronized populations of E. coli Hfr CS 101 met- and asynchronous exponential growing F-strains. Mating pair formation during conjugation was found to be a repetitive periodic response of the cell division cycle and was in part shown to be dependent on the growth of the F- female. The periodicity of F pili formation, as assayed by fl male specific phage and electron micrographs of the cell division cycle, correlated well with the periodicity of pair formation, thus indicating that pair formation and F pili "synthesis" are a function of the cell division cycle in synchronized cultures. The assay of F pili using phage adsorption, male specific phage inhibition of conjugation and mating pair formation during conjugation showed that under certain conditions of the experiments these functions may be used to establish the degree of cell division synchrony in synchronized population of E. coli Hfr by the stationary method of cell synchrony.

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