UV-sensitivity and repair of UV-damages in Salmonella of wild type.

The UV-sensitivity of wild type Salmonella strains has been compared to that of wild type E. cole and its UV-sensitive mutants. Many wild type Salmonella strains are 4-5 times more sensitive than wild type E. coli and their inactivation curves is similar to that for E. coli with a mutation in the polA gene. Alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation has shown a deficiency of these strains in normal excision repair of UV-damaged DNA. This deficiency is not a Salmonella genus feature because one strain as resistant as wild type E. coli was found. This resistant strain showed normal excision repair in alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation experiments. The possible influence of plasmids and mutations in repair genes on the ability of Salmonella to repair UV-damages DNA is discussed.