Abstract
Treatment of Bacillus natto (Asahikawa) with acridine orange resulted in the conversion of approximately 64.2% of the population to stringiness negative, which is indicative of the involvement of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Cleared lysate materials were subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis to determine the plasmid composition of each strain. B. natto (Asahikawa) was found to possess a plasmid of approximately 4.2 megadaltons (Mdal). A 4.2 Mdal plasmid has been found to be missing in the stringiness-negative mutants cured by acridine orange. Gamma-GTP activity was also deficient in the stg- mutants which were missing the 4.2 Mdal plasmid.
