Zygotic induction of the rac locus can cause cell death in E. coli.
Conjugational transfer of the rac locus of E. coli K-12 into a Rac- recipient strain (i.e. rac+ X rac-) results in the killing of a majority of the recipient cells. The efficiency of killing depends somewhat on the plating medium, and can be as high as 98%. The killing is not observed in the rac+ X rac+, rac- X rac- or rac- X rac+ configurations. The rac locus, which has the properties of a cryptic prophage, may carry a function analogous to the kil function of bacteriophage lambda, or may instead cause killing by some replication related process.
D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000502:physiology; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
D004269:DNA, Bacterial