Chapter 19, Problem 39CONQ

Summary Introduction

To review:

The reason why Escherichia coli(E.coli) strains with a deleted dam gene has a higher rate of spontaneous mutation.

Introduction:

The mismatch repair system is involved in repairing incorrectly paired bases which might have been overlooked by the proofreading activity of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) polymerase. This system works on hemimethylated DNA. It involves a set of proteins called the Mut (mutation) proteins and the rate of mutation increases in their absence.