Bhattacharya S, Sarkar N
J Biol Chem. 1982 Feb 25;257(4):1610-2.
Mercurated DNA was synthesized in permeable cells of Bacillus subtilis, using 5-mercurideoxycytidine triphosphate as one of the substrates, and was separated from parental unsubstituted DNA by isopycnic centrifugation in CsCl gradients. The ability of mercurated DNA to transform auxotrophic strains of B. subtilis to prototrophy was compared with that of normal DNA and was 10-20% of the latter. Mercurated and normal DNA bound with similar affinities to identical surface receptors of the recipient cells, but the efficiency of the bound mercurated DNA in promoting transformation was one-tenth to one-fifth of that of normal DNA. The transforming activity of mercury-substituted DNA synthesized in an in vitro system opens the way for the use of mercury as a probe to study the mechanism of bacterial transformation and various other kinds of genetic exchange.
利用5-汞代脱氧胞苷三磷酸作为底物之一，在枯草芽孢杆菌的可渗透细胞中合成了汞化DNA，并通过在CsCl梯度中的等密度离心将其与亲本未取代的DNA分离。将汞化DNA将枯草芽孢杆菌的营养缺陷型菌株转化为原养型的能力与正常DNA进行了比较，前者为后者的10%-20%。汞化DNA和正常DNA以相似的亲和力与受体细胞的相同表面受体结合，但结合的汞化DNA促进转化的效率是正常DNA的十分之一到五分之一。在体外系统中合成的汞取代DNA的转化活性为利用汞作为探针研究细菌转化机制和各种其他类型的基因交换开辟了道路。
