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. 1969 Jun;63(2):473–480. doi: 10.1073/pnas.63.2.473

TRANSIENT ACTIVATION OF RNA POLYMERASE IN Escherichia coli B AFTER INFECTION WITH BACTERIOPHAGE T4*

Arland E Oleson 1, Jaakko P Pispa 1, John M Buchanan 1
PMCID: PMC223588  PMID: 4895538

Abstract

Sköld and Buchanan1 have reported that there is a rapid loss of RNA polymerase activity in Escherichia coli B after infection with T4 bacteriophage. More recent studies on the mechanism of this inactivation have been made in this2 and other laboratories.3, 4 In this communication, we report the observation of a transient stimulation of RNA polymerase activity when measurement is made immediately after infection and when cells are ruptured by a gentle lysis procedure. The increase in activity is independent of the synthesis of protein. The activity in the extracts of infected cells is lost by treatment of the extract with antibody to E. coli RNA polymerase and is refractive to the inhibitory action of the antibiotic rifamycin. Hybridization experiments indicate that an RNA transcribed almost exclusively from a T4 DNA template is the product of incubation of extracts of infected cells with a reaction mixture containing an exogenous primer (salmon sperm DNA). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that one of the first steps in phage infection is the formation of a transcription complex containing T4 DNA and E. coli RNA polymerase.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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