The HU protein is not essential for generating deletions adjacent to transposon Tn3

Escherichia coli mutants deficient in the HU protein were used to test whether this protein is essential for generating DNA deletions adjacent to the ends of Tn3. There were no significant differences in the frequencies of the adjacent DNA deletions in the isogenic series which differ only in the HU loci (hupA or hupB), indicating that the HU protein is not essential for this reaction.