Conditional lethality of Escherichia coli strains carrying dnaE and dnaQ mutations.

A double mutant of Escherichia coli K12 which carries a conditional lethal mutator mutation, dnaQ49 (Horiuchi et al. 1978), and a DNA polymerase III-deficient mutation, dnaE486 (Wechsler and Gross 1971), was found to be more thermolabile than was either of the dnaQ49 or dnaE486 single mutants. The double mutant is able to grow at 28 degrees C but not at 30 degrees C. Under the restrictive conditions DNA synthesis, but not protein synthesis, of the double mutant was suppressed. All the other combinations of dnaQ and dnaE mutation alleles tested so far rendered the cells thermolabile. A dnaZ mutation exerted a similar effect on the dnaQ strain. However, when non-specific temperature-sensitive growth mutations were combined with the dnaQ49 mutation, no such increase in thermosensitivity was observed. There is a possibility that the product of the dnaQ gene interacts directly with the DNA replicating enzyme complex.