UV-induced reversion patterns of constitutive and repressed Salmonella histidine auxotrophs

An unlinked regulatory mutation hisT1504, causes an approximate 11-fold derepression of the histidine (his) operon and a linked constitutive mutation hisO1242 causes an approximate 15-fold derepression. In this study we demonstrate that hisT1504 provokes a significant increase in the UV-induced reversion frequency of his ochre and frameshift mutations. Analysis of revertants derived from frameshift mutants show that this increment in derepressed strains compared to the repressed strains is due to better growth of suppressed revertants by weak frameshift suppressors. The frequency of revertants suppressed by strong frameshift suppressors appears to be the same in repressed and derepressed strains. In contrast, intragenic revertants appear at two-fold decreased frequency in derepressed strains carrying either of the histidine constitutive mutations, hisT1504 or hisO1242. A possible competition is indicated between frequently transcribing RNA polymerase and error-promoting recombinational repair within the histidine operon.