Aberrant transcriptionin fit mutants ofEscherichia coli and its alleviation by suppressor mutations

Abstract

Earlier work from this laboratory had identified, mapped and characterised an intragenic suppressor(fitA24) as well as an extragenic suppressor(fitB) for the temperature-sensitive transcription defective mutationfitA76 inEscherichia coli In this communication we report the results of experiments on RNA synthesis and decay of pulse labelled RNA in strains harbouringfit A76,fitB, fitA24, fitA76-fitA24, fitA76-fitB mutation(s) as well as in the isogenicfitA ⁺ fitB⁺ strain. Taken together with earlier results, this indicates that thefitA andfitB gene products could be involved in the expression of some classes of genes including genes coding for ribosomal proteins. The implications of these results for thein vivo control of transcription inEscherichia coli are discussed.