Filamentous E.coli

[Lesley Robertson]

Rich L wrote:

> Dear experts,
>
> Recently I cloned a pneumococcus gene into an E. coli
> plasmid(pUC-derived)(the gene has its own promotor). When trnasforemed
> into E .coli, E .coli displayed a much slower growth. When I view it by
> LM, and found it becomes filamentous. Most of E.cli are 3-4 times longer,
> 10-20% of E coli become more than 10 times longer. This is an unexpected
> results.
>
> Can somebody there tell me some hints about this, it's really weird.
>
> Rich

  Can't comment on your actual system, but I've found with other bugs that
when they're "unhappy" they often don't divide - I've seen it with certan
electron-accepetor limited sulphur bacteria, and with others that we're
trying to adapt to growth on something toxic. It seems to be linked to an
imbalance between biosynthesis and other metabolic functions.What could your
cloned gene be upsetting, either as itself of because of its insertion place?

Lesley Robertson