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Spheroplast Production in Thymine Starvation

Abstract

“THYMINELESS DEATH” is the progressive loss of the ability to form colonies in thymine dependent bacteria growing in a medium lacking this pyrimidine1. This treatment is considered to be responsible for the induction of colicine2, lysogenic phage3, and mutagenic activity4. This report links thymine starvation with spheroplast formation in a mutant of Escherichia coli 15 which requires thymine and histidine for growth, and cannot grow in the presence of 100 µg norleucine/ml.

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COUGHLIN, C. Spheroplast Production in Thymine Starvation. Nature 212, 633–635 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/212633a0

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