The occurrence of 6-methylaminopurine in deoxyribonucleic acids

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Abstract
6-Methylaminopurine was identified as a constituent of deoxyribonucleic acid from Escherichia coli 15 T- when grown in the presence of 5-aminouracil or 2-thio-thymine or in low concentrations of thymine. During growth under these conditions it increases increases in amount 15% or more of the adenine. The purine and pyrimidine compositions of these nucleic acids are given. The isolated 6-methylaminopurine deoxyriboside and deoxyribonucleotide from E. coli 15 T- and Aerobacter aerogenes amounted to about 2% of the adenine; they occurred in smaller amounts in the deoxyribonucleic acids of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, pneumococ-cus, E. coli bacteriophage T2 and Salmonella c bacteriophage. No 6-methylaminopurine could be detected in deoxyribonucleic acid from calf thymus, horse spleen, wheat germ, salmon sperm, yeast, Staphylococ-cus, Bacillus cereus, Streptomyces griseus and Streptomyces bacterio-phage. Values are given for the maximum proportion of 6-methylaminopurine which would have remained undetected.