Mutator mutations in Escherichia coli induced by the insertion of phage mu and the transposable resistance elements Tn5 and Tn10.

Mutator mutations in the mutS gene induced by the insertion of phage Mu or the transposable resistance elements Tn5 or Tn10 and those in the mutL gene induced by Tn5 or Tn10 gave mutagenic activities similar to that of the previously described mutS3 and mutL25 mutations. Various combinations of mutS::Tn5, muL::Tn5, uvrE156, and the deletion mutation delta mutH2 did not produce an additive effect. This supports the idea that the products of these genes function in the same pathway of error correction during DNA synthesis.