Salmonella typhimurium derepressed for the histidine biosynthetic enzymes form wrinkled colonies at 37 °C on media containing a high (2%) content of metabolizable carbon source. "Wrinkledness" reflects accumulation of multinucleate filamentous cells caused by impaired cell division. At 42 °C, DNA synthesis and nuclear division are impaired. Addition of methionine at 42 °C permits DNA synthesis, nuclear division, and, under some conditions, cell division. However, multinucleate filaments are formed both on high and on low carbon source at 42 °C. The filaments contain nuclei that are peculiarly hypersensitive to inactivation with ultraviolet (uv.) light.Overproduction of both the hisH and hisF gene products is required for these pleiotropic effects of derepression. The hisH and hisF proteins, and even some of their enzymologically inactive forms, may cooperate to inhibit cell division by direct interaction with (a) sensitive cellular site(s).

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Three antibiotic-resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae responsible for outbreaks of systemic infection in a hospital nursery were analyzed. Each organism emerged after prolonged use of a drug to which it was resistant. The first strain (RO16) produced neomycin phosphotransferase and contained three plasmids with molecular weights of 24, 25, and 30 X 10(6) daltons, respectively. Resistance to ampicillin, carbenicillin, neomycin, and kanamycin was transferred by conjugation at a frequency of 10(-6). The second strain of K. pneumoniae (RO106) produced gentamicin adenyltransferase and maintained aminoglycoside resistance only when propagated in antibiotic-containing medium. DNA analyses revealed eight species of plasmid DNA: one species with a molecular weight of 70 X 10(6) daltons apparently accounted for conjugal transfer of resistance to ampicillin, carbenicillin, chloramphenicol, and streptomycin. The third strain (RO180) was resistant primarily to colistin and lacked plasmids. Control of the outbreak due to this strain was achieved by aminoglycoside therapy.

Gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (GND) is genetically determined in Salmonella typhimurium by a locus ( gnd ) mapping between the somatic antigen ( rfb ) and histidine ( his ) operons. The enzyme is constitutive. Strains of Salmonella carrying an F′ genetic element which contains the gnd + gene have GND activity two to three times that of the wild type. This gene dosage effect was used to determine that the GND reaction is not rate-limiting for the metabolism of glucose by the pentose shunt in S. typhimurium .

The substrate specificity of the uvr endonuclease, the product of the uvrA, uvrB, and uvrC genes is reviewed. It is suggested that the relatively well-defined substrate specificity of this repair enzyme is useful as a guide in determining the nature of the DNA-lesion caused by a given mutagen.