The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology
Online ISSN : 1349-8037
Print ISSN : 0022-1260
ISSN-L : 0022-1260
INSTABILITY OF MUTANTS OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS RESISTANT TO PHAGE A-1
KONOSUKE SANOISAMU SHIIO
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1973 Volume 19 Issue 4 Pages 273-286

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Abstract

Frequency of the appearance of phage A-1-resistant mutants of Bacillus subtilis, an inosine producer, was higher on synthetic media than on natural media.
The character of phage resistance in most of the mutants, however, was very unstable and the mutants became sensitive during preservation on the same medium on which they had been isolated. Since A-1-resistant mutants grew slowly on any media used compared to the parental sensitive strain, this type of conversion could be explained by "population change" caused by the increase of phage-sensitive revertant cells during cultivation or successive transfers. To prevent this conversion, the presence of phage A-1 was utilized for eliminating the sensitive cells during the maintenance of resistant strains.
Another type of conversion was observed when phage-resistant mutants obtained on a natural medium were transferred to some synthetic media and vice versa. Several saccharides, such as glucose, glucosamine, and ribose, were found to stimulate the conversion when resistant cells were transferred from natural medium to synthetic medium. This conversion was prevented by the isolation of phage-resistant mutants successively on various media.

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