Recovery of donor deoxyribonucleic acid marker activity from eclipse in pneumococcal transformation.

After the uptake of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), donor marker-transforming activity is temporarily lost. Restoration of the activity by annealing in vitro supports the idea that donor DNA is single-stranded at this stage. Kinetics of in vivo recovery from eclipse were examined for various markers at three temperatures. Sigmoidal recovery curves at lower temperatures indicate that the process consists of several steps. Rate of recovery was found to depend on the nature of the donor marker. Single-site markers recover much more rapidly than multisite markers corresponding to recipient deletions. Single-site markers vary somewhat in recovery rate, with rapidity of recovery inversely related to integration efficiency. Appearance of a recombinant-transforming activity lags only slightly behind recovery of its constituent donor marker.