Transduction, restriction and recombination patterns in Escherichia coli

Chromosomal DNA from several Escherichia coli reference (ECOR) strains was transduced by bacteriophage P1 into E. coli strain K12 W3110 trpA33. Recombination patterns of the transductants were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism over a 40-kb region centering on a single marker (trpA+) in the tryptophan operon. These experiments demonstrate that transduction between different strains of E. coli can result in recombinational replacements that are small in comparison to the entrant molecule (replacements average 8-14 kb, whereas P1 packages approximately 100 kb) often in a series of discrete segments. The transduction patterns generated resemble the natural mosaic sequence patterns of the ECOR strains described in previous work. Extensive polymorphisms in the restriction-modification systems of the ECOR strains are a possible explanation for the sequence patterns in nature. To test this possibility two transductants were back-transduced into strain K12 W3110 trpA33. The resulting patterns were strikingly different from the original transductions. The size of the replacements was greater, and no multiple replacements were observed, suggesting a role for restriction-modification systems in the transduction patterns and perhaps for the mosaic sequence patterns in nature.