An adaptive response of E. coli to low levels of alkylating agent: comparison with previously characterised DNA repair pathways.

We have described previously an inducible response in Escherichia coli which occurs during growth on low levels of the methylating agent, N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), and which enables cells both to survive better and to be less mutated by a subsequent challenge dose of MNNG than control cultures (Samson and Cairns, 1977). We show here that this response is distinct from previously characterised pathways of DNA repair, and particularly from the SOS response, which is another inducible effect resulting from DNA damage. An examination of the cross-reactivity of this response with other mutagens has shown that it is a generalised mechanism affecting alkylation damage to DNA. It cannot, however, be induced by UV or the UV-mimetic mutagen, 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide, nor act on lesions put into DNA by those mutagens.