Mutants of Escherichia coli defective for replicative transposition of bacteriophage Mu.

We isolated 142 Hir- (host inhibition of replication) mutants of an Escherichia coli K-12 Mu cts Kil- lysogen that survived heat induction and the killing effect of Mu replicative transposition. All the 86 mutations induced by insertion of Tn5 or a kanamycin-resistant derivative of Tn10 and approximately one-third of the spontaneous mutations were found by P1 transduction to be linked to either zdh-201::Tn10 or Tn10-1230, indicating their location in or near himA or hip, respectively. For a representative group of these mutations, complementation by a plasmid carrying the himA+ gene or by a lambda hip+ transducing phage confirmed their identification as himA or hip mutations, respectively. Some of the remaining spontaneously occurring mutations were located in gyrA or gyrB, the genes encoding DNA gyrase. Mutations in gyrA were identified by P1 linkage to zei::Tn10 and a Nalr gyrA allele; those in gyrB were defined by linkage to tna::Tn10 and to a gyrB(Ts) allele. In strains carrying these gyrA or gyrB mutations, pBR322 plasmid DNA exhibited altered levels of supercoiling. The extent of growth of Mu cts differed in the various gyrase mutants tested. Phage production in one gyrA mutant was severely reduced, but it was only delayed and slightly reduced in other gyrA and gyrB mutants. In contrast, growth of a Kil- Mu was greatly reduced in all gyrase mutant hosts tested.