Answer to Question #307262 in Genetics for boo

Question

A conditional mutation expresses its mutant phenotype only under the restrictive conditions and expresses the normal phenotype under the permissive conditions. One type of conditional mutation is a temperature-sensitive mutation, which expresses the mutant phenotype only at certain temperatures. Strains of E. coli have been isolated that contain temperature-sensitive mutations in the genes encoding different components of the replication machinery. In each of these strains, the protein produced by the mutated gene is non-functional under the restrictive conditions. These strains are grown under permissive conditions and then abruptly switched to the restrictive condition. After one round of replication under the restrictive condition, the DNA from each strain is isolated and analysed. What characteristics would you expect to see in the DNA isolated from each strain with a temperature-sensitive mutation in its gene that encodes a) DNA polymerase III, b) primase and c) initiator protein?

Answer 1

DNA Polymerase I (E coli) is a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase with inherent 3´→ 5´ and 5´→ 3´ exonuclease activities (1). The 5´→ 3´ exonuclease activity removes nucleotides ahead of the growing DNA chain, allowing nick-translation