Production and repair of radiochemical damage in Escherichia coli deoxyribonucleic acid; its modification by culture conditions and relation to survival.

Late log-phase Escherichia coli B/r cells are 1.6 times more sensitive to killing by X rays than are stationary-phase cells when grown in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) + glucose. The number of single-chain breaks formed per krad is the same for log- and stationary-phase cells. Stationary-phase cells show a somewhat greater ability to repair single-chain breaks (especially after high doses of X rays) than do log-phase cells. The rapidity and extent of postirradiation deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) degradation are greater in log-phase cells than in stationary-phase cells. The enhanced viability exhibited by stationary-phase cells thus appears to correlate both with enhanced single-chain break repair and the reduced degradation of DNA. Cells grown to stationary phase in peptone medium (PO cells) are 3.4 times more sensitive to killing by X rays than cells grown to stationary phase in peptone medium supplemented with glucose and phosphate buffer (PG cells). The yield of single-strand breaks is the same for both types of cells (but the absolute yield is about two times higher than in the cells grown in BHI + glucose). The kinetics for the repair of single-chain breaks are the same for both types of cells for about 30 min. After this time period, further repair ceases in the PO cells but continues in the PG cells, provided that glucose is present in the medium. Postirradiation DNA degradation is both more rapid and more extensive in PO cells than in PG cells whether or not glucose is present in the postirradiation incubation medium. The survival of stationary-phase E. coli B/r grown in PO or PG medium is likewise unaffected by the presence of glucose in the plating medium, and thus correlates better with the lower DNA degradation seen in the PG cells than with the increased strand rejoining, since this latter process requires the presence of glucose.