Fig. 3

Growth and metabolic phenotypes of drdA and drdI deletant strains. a Deleting drdA or drdI exacerbates 5-deoxyribose toxicity. A disc containing 10 µL of 1 M 5-deoxyribose was applied to lawns of B. thuringiensis wild type (WT) or deletant cells. Note the larger zone of growth inhibition for the deletant strains. b Similarly, adding 1 mM 5-deoxyribose (5-dR) to liquid medium reduced the growth rate of the deletant strains significantly more than the wild type. Data are means of four replicates or three replicates for the ΔdrdI strain; error bars are the s.d. Significance was determined by t-test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. c Estimated levels of dRu1P and 5-dR in cells grown to an OD₆₀₀ of ~1.7, minus or plus 1 mM 5-dR. Data are means of 7–11 replicates; error bars are the s.d. ^†level below the limit of quantitation (~1.5 nmol mg protein⁻¹)