Kinetics ofF-curing by acridine orange in relation to the number ofF-particles inEscherichia coli

Abstract

Acridine orange does not interfere with the distribution of theF-particles among the daughter cells but inhibits the multiplication of the episome.In growing cells the generation time of the episome in the presence of acridine orange is longer than the generation time of the cell.This lowers the number of episomes per cell to less than two copies at cell division.F-particles rapidly multiply after transfer until a relatively small fixed number (3–4) is reached.