Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1983 Oct;48(1):180–185. doi: 10.1128/jvi.48.1.180-185.1983

Mutations in the J-F intercistronic region of bacteriophages phi X174 and G4 affect the regulation of gene expression.

M L Romantschuk, U R Müller
PMCID: PMC255334  PMID: 6224940

Abstract

The J-F intercistronic region of the genomes of bacteriophages phi X174 and G4 is transcribed but not translated. It contains the potential for a perfectly base-paired hairpin structure, which has been proposed to act as a terminator of transcription or as a regulatory region for mRNA turnover (or both). We measured phage-specific protein synthesis in mutants with modifications of the hairpin sequence and found a relative decrease in the expression of the upstream gene D as compared to the downstream genes F, G, and H in all mutants. The mutations also appeared to affect the efficiency of the gene F ribosome-binding site. These data strongly support the regulatory significance of the J-F intercistronic region and the putative hairpin structure therein.

Full text

PDF
180

Images in this article

182Image
on p.182

Selected References

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

  1. Benbow R. M., Hutchison C. A., Fabricant J. D., Sinsheimer R. L. Genetic Map of Bacteriophage phiX174. J Virol. 1971 May;7(5):549–558. doi: 10.1128/jvi.7.5.549-558.1971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fiddes J. C., Godson G. N. Nucleotide sequence of the J gene and surrounding untranslated regions of phage G4 DNA: comparison with phage phiX174. Cell. 1978 Nov;15(3):1045–1053. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(78)90288-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Gelfand D. H., Hayashi M. Electrophoretic characterization of phiX174-specific proteins. J Mol Biol. 1969 Sep 28;44(3):501–516. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(69)90376-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Godson G. N. Evolution of phi-chi 174. Isolation of four new phi-chi-like phages and comparison with phi-chi 174. Virology. 1974 Mar;58(1):272–289. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(74)90161-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Guarneros G., Montañez C., Hernandez T., Court D. Posttranscriptional control of bacteriophage lambda gene expression from a site distal to the gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jan;79(2):238–242. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.2.238. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hall M. N., Gabay J., Débarbouillé M., Schwartz M. A role for mRNA secondary structure in the control of translation initiation. Nature. 1982 Feb 18;295(5850):616–618. doi: 10.1038/295616a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hayashi M. N., Hayashi M., Müller U. R. Role for the J-F intercistronic region of bacteriophages phi X174 and G4 in stability of mRNA. J Virol. 1983 Oct;48(1):186–196. doi: 10.1128/jvi.48.1.186-196.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hayashi M., Fujimura F. K., Hayashi M. Mapping of in vivo messenger RNAs for bacteriophage phiX-174. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Oct;73(10):3519–3523. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.10.3519. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hutchison C. A., 3rd, Sinsheimer R. L. The process of infection with bacteriophage phi-X174. X. Mutations in a phi-X Lysis gene. J Mol Biol. 1966 Jul;18(3):429–447. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80035-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Müller U. R. Enzymatic construction and selection of bacteriophage G4 mutants with modifications of a DNA secondary structure in the J-F intercistronic region. J Virol. 1983 Oct;48(1):170–179. doi: 10.1128/jvi.48.1.170-179.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Müller U. R., Fitch W. M. Evolutionary selection for perfect hairpin structures in viral DNAs. Nature. 1982 Aug 5;298(5874):582–585. doi: 10.1038/298582a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Müller U. R., Fitch W. M. Theoretical evidence for the significance of certain types of DNA secondary structure in the genomes of phi X174, G4, fd, SV40 and the plasmid pBR322. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1981;64:285–297. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Müller U. R., Wells R. D. Intercistronic regions in phi X174 DNA. I. Construction of mutants with altered intercistronic regions between genes J and F. J Mol Biol. 1980 Jul 25;141(1):1–24. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(80)80026-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Müller U. R., Wells R. D. Intercistronic regions in phi X174 DNA. II. Biochemical and biological analysis of mutants with altered intercistronic regions between genes J and F. J Mol Biol. 1980 Jul 25;141(1):25–41. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(80)80027-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Platt T. Termination of transcription and its regulation in the tryptophan operon of E. coli. Cell. 1981 Apr;24(1):10–23. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90496-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Robertson H. D. Escherichia coli ribonuclease III cleavage sites. Cell. 1982 Oct;30(3):669–672. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90270-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Trapnell B. C., Tolstoshev P., Crystal R. G. Secondary structures for splice junctions in eukaryotic and viral messenger RNA precursors. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Aug 25;8(16):3659–3672. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.16.3659. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Wells R. D., Goodman T. C., Hillen W., Horn G. T., Klein R. D., Larson J. E., Müller U. R., Neuendorf S. K., Panayotatos N., Stirdivant S. M. DNA structure and gene regulation. Prog Nucleic Acid Res Mol Biol. 1980;24:167–267. doi: 10.1016/s0079-6603(08)60674-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES