Repair deficient mutants of Bacteroides fragilis have been isolated in order to study the responses of this organism to various DNA damaging agents at the physiological and molecular levels. Two types of mutants were isolated by ethyl methane sulphonate mutagenesis of B.fragilis followed by selection for sensitivity to mitomycin C. One mutant (UVS9) showed sensitivity to both mitomycin C and far-UV irradiation. The other (MTC25) was more sensitive to mitomycin C than UVS9, but showed wild-type resistance to UV radiation. Both mutant strains had wild-type resistance to methyl methane sulphonate.
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Department of Molecular and Cell Biology