The distribution of the numbers of mutants in bacterial populations (original) (raw)

Summary

Statistical calculations are made of the distribution numbers of mutants in a culture of bacteria in which the number of mutants increases on account both of new mutations and of division of old mutants. In this way the largely qualitative conclusions of Luria and Delbruck are extended and placed on a firm quantitative basis. The results of these calculations, which enable the mutation rate to be inferred from experiments with parallel cultures, are presented in the form of tables. Statistically efficient methods of using these tables are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Radiotherapeutics and Strangeways Laboratory, Cambridge
   D. E. Lea
2. Wheatstone Physics Laboratory, King's College, London
   C. A. Coulson

Authors

1. D. E. Lea
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2. C. A. Coulson
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Additional information

[Note by C. A. C. A few days before Dr Lea's untimely death in June 1947, the manuscript and the calculations reported here had just been completed. It was Dr Lea's intention to make further experiments more suitable to a test of the theory outlined in this paper. These experiments cannot now be made, but it has been thought wise to publish the theory and numerical tables because of their value to other investigators.]

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Lea, D.E., Coulson, C.A. The distribution of the numbers of mutants in bacterial populations.Journ. of Genetics 49, 264–285 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02986080

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• Issue Date: December 1949
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02986080

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