Effect of adenosine 5'-triphosphate-dependent deoxyribonuclease deficiency on properties and transformation of Haemophilus influenzae strains.

A transformation-deficient strain of Haemophilus influenzae, lacking adenosine 5'-triphosphate-dependent deoxyribonuclease activity, was isolated by selection for sensitivity to mitomycin. The mutant, designated JK57, possibily showed a moderate sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and treatment with methyl methane sulfonate. Contrary to the wild type, the mutant degraded chromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to some extent. However, after UV irradiation to the mutant degraded considerably less DNA than the wild type and the TD24 mutant of H. influenzae, the latter being equivalent to a recA mutant of Escherichia coli. A TD2457 double mutant, constructed by transferring the TD24 mutation into the JK57 strain, was as sensitive to deleterious agents and as deficient in transformation as the TD24 single mutant; in the double mutant, however, after UV irradiation chromosomal DNA was degraded to the same extent as in the JK57 mutant. The number of transformants per unit of radioactive donor DNA taken up by JK57 recipient cells was approximately 10-fold smaller than in the wild type. Presynaptically, the fate of donor DNA in the adenosine 5'-triphosphate-dependent deoxyribonuclease-deficient mutants was not different from that in the wild type. In contrast to TD24 and the TD2457 double mutant, in the JK57 mutant, recombinant-type activities (molecules carrying both the donor and recipient markers) were formed almost as well as in the wild type. After integration into the JK57 recipient genome, the rate of replication of the donor marker was equal to that of the recipient marker during a number of generations, which suggests that the donor DNA is normally integrated into the JK57 chromosome. It is suggested that transformed JK57 cells pass with a high frequency into a type of cells that can replicate their chromosomes many times but have lost the ability to form visible colonies after plating.