Protoplast fusion in Streptomyces: fusions involving ultraviolet-irradiated protoplasts

Protoplasts of Streptomyces coelicolor showed the same ultraviolet killing kinetics as spores. Irradiated protoplasts gave rise to recombinants when they were fused with unirradiated protoplasts of a strain carrying complementary genetic markers. The decline with u.v. fluence in the capacity of irradiated protoplasts to yield recombinants inheriting individual markers was some six times less steep than the survival of unfused protoplasts; thus, for example, protoplasts reduced to only 0.01% survival still yielded 10% as many recombinants as unirradiated protoplasts. Each of six widely separated markers of the irradiated parent was inherited independently of the others, with a frequency falling exponentially with u.v. fluence. (author)