Isolation and characterization of delta ompB strains of Escherichia coli by a general method based on gene fusions.

We isolated a series of delta ompR delta envZ mutants by inducing a strain carrying a lambda prophage in the closely linked gene malP and screening the bacterial survivors for loss of the major outer membrane porins OmpF and OmpC. Characterization of these deletion strains showed that both OmpR and EnvZ were necessary for transcription of ompF and ompC and that neither gene was essential for cell viability. Moreover, the deletion strains did not exhibit the pleiotropic membrane protein deficiency observed with certain envZ mutants. The method described should allow the simple isolation of deletions in any region of the chromosome.