Recovery of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in bacteria after amino acid starvation

Abstract

It is well established that, in log phase cultures of bacteria, nucleic acid synthesis will proceed in the presence of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic which blocks protein synthesis ( Gale and Folkes, 1953; Wisseman, Smadel, Hahn and Hopps, 1954). However, when a culture of Escherichia, coli is starved for a period of time for a required amino acid, a requirement is induced for protein synthesis, so that the addition of chloramphenicol to the culture blocks further deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis ( Gros and Gros, 1958; Billen, 1960). If the requisite protein synthesis is allowed, however, recovery of the DNA synthetic system occurs and DNA synthesis will again proceed in the presence of chloramphenicol. The present report describes experimental results which suggest that the recovery of cellular capacity for DNA synthesis (involving the synthesis of protein) is not related to the restitution of rate limiting components of the DNA synthetic system but rather reflects the function of an intracellular control mechanism which effectively serves to limit DNA replication.