[Escherichia coli K-12 mutants capable of catabolizing purine nucleosides in the absence of purine nucleoside phosphorylase].

Strains of Escherichia coli K-12 defective in purine nucleoside phosphorylase (pup gene) formed on the medium with inosine as the source of carbon and energy phenotypical reversions for the ability of utilizing inosine as source of carbon or purines. The phenotypical suppression of the purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency is the result of the mutations (called pnd), which are mapped on the chromosome of E. coli beyond the region of the structural pup-gene location and have phenotypic manifestation distinct from that of pup+ allele: a) pnd mutants divide into some groups for the ability of utilizing several purine nucleosides, including xantosine that cannot be metabolized by pnd+ strains of E. coli; b) pnd mutations do not restore the ability of purine auxotrophs (pur) defective in purine nucleoside phosphorylase (pup) and adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (apt) to grow on the medium with adenine as the sole source of purines. Cell-free extracts of pnd mutants fail to degrade the guanine nucleosides in the absence of phosphate or arsenate ions. These data (and also the ability of pnd mutants to utilize both purine ribonucleosides and deoxyribonucleosides) seem to indicate that the activities induced by pnd mutations are phosphorylase activities.