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Science 15 November 1996:
Vol. 274. no. 5290, pp. 1057 - 0
DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5290.1057h
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This Week in Science

Methyl-directed mismatch repair (MMR) helps control the rate of mutations in newly synthesized DNA and gene transfer between species. LeClerc et al. (p. 1208) examined isolates of bacterial pathogen species associated with food-transmitted human diseases, including Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis, and found that they had an unexpectedly high mutation rate. In all of the cases examined, the hypermutability was to due to defects in MMR. The authors suggest that hypermutability may help account for the rapid increase in antibiotic resistance seen recently in bacterial pathogens (see the news story by Grady, p. 1081).




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)