Recall that nitrous acid deaminates adenine, cytosine, and guanine (adenine → hypoxanthine, which base-pairs with cytosine; cytosine → uracil, which base-pairs with adenine; and guanine → xanthine, which base-pairs with cytosine). Would you expect nitrous acid to induce any mutations that result in the substitution of another amino acid for a glycine residue in a wild-type polypeptide (i.e., glycine → another amino acid) if the mutagenesis were carried outon a suspension of mature (nonreplicating) T4 bacteriophage?
After the mutagenic treatment of the phage suspension, the nitrous acid is removed. The treated phage is then allowed to infect E. coli cells to express any induced mutations. If so, by what mechanism? If not, why not?