Alternative forms of lethality in mitomycin C-induced bacteria carrying ColE1 plasmids

We have studied the physiological effects of mitomycin C induction on cells carrying ColE1 plasmids with differing configurations of three genes: the structural gene coding for colicin (cea), a gene responsible for mitomycin C lethality (kil) that we located as part of an operon with cea, and the immunity (imm) gene, which lies near cea but is not in the same operon. kil is close to or overlaps imm. When cea(+) plasmids are present mitomycin C induction results in 100-fold or greater increases in the level of colicin. Within an hour after induction more than 90% of cells carrying cea(+)kil(+) plasmids are killed and macromolecular synthesis stops, capacity for transport of proline, thiomethyl beta-D-galactoside, and alpha-methyl glucoside is lost, and the membrane becomes abnormally permeable as indicated by an increased accessibility of intracellular beta-galactosidase to the substrate o-nitrophenyl beta-D-galactoside. All of these events occur when a cea(-)kil(+)imm(+) plasmid is present and none does when the plasmid is cea(+)kil(-)imm(+), so the damage can be attributed solely to the Kil function and not to the presence of colicin. However, cells carrying a cea(+)kil(-)imm(-) plasmid are killed upon induction, apparently by action of endogenous colicin on the nonimmune cytoplasmic membrane. The pattern of accompanying physiological damage is distinguished from the kil(+)-associated damage by an enhancement of alpha-methyl glucoside uptake and accumulation and efflux of alpha-methyl glucoside 6-phosphate and by an absence of the alteration in membrane permeability for o-nitrophenyl beta-D-galactoside. These features are typical of colicin E1 action on the membrane. The induced damage is not prevented by trypsin and occurs in cells of a strain specifically tolerant to exogenous colicin E1, indicating that the attack is from inside the cell.