Recombination and the Escherichia coli K-12 sex factor F

Recombination between two Flac tra minus elements to give Flac tra plus recombinants was measured in Rec plus and Rec minus strains of Escherichia coli K-12. Polar tra mutations were used to increase the proportion of tra plus recombinants among the parental Flac tra minus elements transferred by complementation. The kinetics, measured in a rec plus strain, showed that recombination began about 1 h after the initiation of mating and was completed about 1 h later. Recombination was abolished in a recA minus strain, reduced by two-thirds in a recF minus strain, and unaffected in recB minus and recC minus strains. It is proposed that the part not due to the RecF pathway results from a RecBC- and RecF-independent system for formation of single-stranded joins. One such join could be followed either by transfer and a site-specific recombination event, or by a second single-stranded join and then transfer: in either case replication and inheritance of the recombinant molecule would be dependent upon the F transfer replication system. Chromosome mobilization by an F' element was normal in a recB plus recF minus strain, and was reduced only fourfold in a recB minus recF plus strain: in the latter strain, both the RecF pathway and the system for single-stranded joins may have contributed to mobilization. Measurement of post-conjugational chromosomal recombination in exponential-phase recipient cells carrying surface exclusion-deficient Flac mutants indicated that F does not itself determine a generalized recombination system able to replace the RecA plus product or the RecBC and RecF pathways.