Wood developed one of the first approaches for isolating restriction mutants in bacteria [Wood, W. 1966. Host specificity of DNA produced by Escherichia coli: Bacterial mutations affecting the restriction and modification of DNA. J. Mol. Biol.16: 118-133]. He took advantage of a l specialized transducing phage that carries gal+ genes. The phage was grown on E. coli C and then used to transduce a gal- mutant of E. coli K to Gal+. The resulting mutants were then tested for the efficiency of plating (EOP) on several E. coli recipient strains. The properties of two of the E. coli mutants are shown in the table below.

Donor host

Recipient

Efficiency of plating

E. coli C

E. coli K

0.0004

E. coli C

E. coli K hsd-802

1

E. coli C

E. coli K hsd-811

1

E. coli K

E. coli C

1

E. coli K hsd-802

E. coli C

1

E. coli K hsd-811

E. coli C

1

E. coli K

E. coli K

1

E. coli K hsd-802

E. coli K

1

E. coli K hsd-811

E. coli K

0.0002

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