Weigle reactivation and mutagenesis of bacteriophage λ in lexA(Def) mutants of E. coli K12

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Abstract
The SOS response in UV-irradiated bacteria enhances the survival and mutagenesis of infecting damaged bacteriophage λ. In a lexA(Def) strain, SOS bacterial genes are fully derepressed by an inactivating mutation in the LexA repressor gene. We tested several lexA(Def) derivative strains for their capacity to constitutively promote high survival and mutagenesis of irradiated λ. We showed that UV irradiation of the lexA(Def) host bacteria is still necessary for optimal efficiency of both these SOS functions, which are dependent on the umuC gene product and an activated form of RecA protein.