Isolation and partial characterization of temperature-sensitive mutants in ten loci that affect cell membrane synthesis in Escherichia coli: isolation and genetic sorting.

Four hundred temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants were isolated by the (3)H-glycerol-3-phosphate membrane suicide procedure of Cronan, Ray, and Vagelos and were sorted into 13 groups by the rapid mapping procedures of Low. Recombination and complementation studies on representative members of each group suggested that the ts mutations of all 13 groups are present in genetically different complementation groups. Biochemical studies suggested that 10 of these ts mutations affected cell membrane synthesis. In this paper, the genetic data are presented in detail so that the limits of the Low rapid mapping procedures can be assessed, and in an accompanying paper the partial biochemical characterization of the ts mutations is described.