摘要：

The enzymatic properties of purified DNA polymerase I from a strain of Escherichia coli K12 with a mutation in the polA gene have been studied. The polymerizing activity of the mutant enzyme is similar to that of the enzyme from isogenic wild-type cells, when the activity is measured on exonuclease III treated calf-thymus DNA. Also the 3′–5′ exonucleolytic activity is not significantly different for both enzyme preparations. The 5′–3′ exonucleolytic activity of DNA polymerase I isolated from the mutant strain, however, is much lower than that of wild-type DNA polymerase I. The products formed by the action of the wild-type and the mutant enzyme on nicked circular double-stranded DNA of phage X174′ (RFII DNA) were analysed by sucrose-gradient sedimentation and electron-microscopy. When RFII DNA was incubated with wild-type enzyme 80% of the molecules were converted into linear molecules. All linear molecules were shorter than one phage genome. Only 25% of the molecules were branched. After incubation of RFII DNA with the mutant enzyme 62% of the molecules have become linear. More than 90% of these linear molecules were branched and the majority of them was longer than one phage genome.

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