Transfection with heteroduplex SPP1 DNA: a pyrimidine dimer induced influence on the conversion pattern.

Bacillus subtilis competent cells were transfected with SPP1 heteroduplices having pyrimidine dimers in one of the strands. The data obtained reveal that excision repair of the pyrimidine dimers influences the ratio of wild type versus mutant progeny observed in "normal" heteroduplex transfection. With increased exposure of one strand to UV dose the percentage of infective centers having the unirradiated strand genotype shows an increase. A comparison of the transfection data in her+ and her- host excludes asymmetric replication as the cause of the observed changes in the conversion pattern. The data can be explained on the basis of a dimer induced co-excision of the mismatched region. In addition transfection data from wild type/deletion mutant heteroduplices where the strand of mutant origin was irradiated exclude the possibility of the wild type loop being excised during uptake.