Suppression of dual-effect mutants of the L-ribulokinase structural gene of Escherichia coli B/r
A number of extragenic suppressors for two-dual effect, polarity, and hyperinducible L-ribulokinaseless mutants were isolated and enzymatically characterized. The effect of the suppressors on L-arabinose isomerase and L-ribulokinase enzyme activities was tested using a variety of arar suppressor-carrying strains. The effect of these suppressor mutations on T4 amber and ocher mutants was also studied. Results show that low-dual-effect, i.e. polarity, araB− suppressor-carrying strains invariably have a distinct increase in the L-arabinose isomerase enzyme level, above the wild-type level, irrespective of the restoration of the L-ribulokinase enzyme activity. High-dual-effect, hyperinducible, suppressed mutants, on the other hand, were not significantly altered in their L-arabinose isomerase enzyme level. It is also found that four different T4 amber mutants were suppressible by all tested suppressor-carrying strains, while T4 ocher mutants were not. It is concluded that the suppressor mutations studied are amber-like suppressors acting at the translation level, and that both polarity mutant araB68 and hyperinducible mutant araBA87 are nonsense mutants. The phenomenon of hyperinducibility is also discussed.