Differential survival and chloramphenicol-insensitive error-prone repair of hydroxylamine-inactivated θX174 bacteriophage mutants

Abstract

Features of inactivation, repair and concomitant mutagenesis of hydroxylamine- treated θX174 bacteriophages are reported here. (1) For reasons unknown, the nonsense phage mutants tested here were far more sensitive to hydroxylamine than the wild-type phage. In contrast, the sensitivities of these same θX174 mutants to UV-irradiation are indistinguishable. (2) Hydroxylamine-treated amber phages mutated to ochre but not to wild-type particles, i.e., G → A transition events were recovered. (3) The repair of θX174 phages from hydroxylamine-induced damage was error-prone, but unlike UV damage, did not require protein synthesis de novo. Possible mechanims of these novel features are discussed.