Colony mutants of compatible nocardiae displaying variations in recombining capacity.

Colonial morphology mutants of Nocardia erythropolis were isolated following ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The alleles rou-1/smo-1 were located by recombinant analysis and found to be linked to previously mapped characters. On the basis of recombinant class type patterns obtained from various selective characters it was postulated that the rou-1 allele may span a region of unique nucleotides in the Mat-Ce genome. Recombination frequencies of rou-1 and smo-2 bearing mutants of the Mat-Ce mating type were found to differ by over 1000 fold. Attempts to demonstrate that low recombination frequencies produced by the Smo mutants were due to Rec(-) genes were unsuccessful. No increased sensitivity to either UV or X irradiation was observed by the Smo mutants. Acriflavine treatment of either Rou or Smo colony mutants failed to accelerate reversion or to alter the recombining potentials of the mutants.