Isolation of induced mutations in E. coli affecting the electrophoretic mobility of enzymes

A screening method was developed for detection of bacterial mutants having active enzymes with altered electrophoretic mobility. The method is based on the use of a mixture of several clones, and examination of an extract of the mixture electrophoretically. A variant enzyme will thus be detectable by its position apart from the mixture of wild-type enzymes.Following exposure to a mutagenic agent, five mutants of E. coli K12 were detected and isolated. Two of these have variant MDH (malate dehydrogenates), the others have variant forms of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and esterase.Preliminary mapping of the MDH locus has been performed.