Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1970 Jan;65(1):242–248. doi: 10.1073/pnas.65.1.242

The Structural Gene for a T7 Endonuclease Essential for Phage DNA Synthesis*

Melvin S Center 1,2, F William Studier 1,2, Charles C Richardson 1,2
PMCID: PMC286216  PMID: 5263754

Abstract

Infection of Escherichia coli with bacteriophage T7 results in the appearance of an endonuclease activity capable of hydrolyzing both double-and single-stranded DNA. Treatment with chloramphenicol prevents the induction of the endonuclease. Amber mutants of phage T7 defective in gene 3 are unable to produce the enzyme after infection of the nonpermissive host, and mutants that produce a heat-labile endonuclease were found, indicating that this gene is the structural gene for the enzyme. Gene 3 mutants synthesize only a limited amount of DNA. In addition, they are defective in carrying out the degradation of host DNA, suggesting that the gene 3 endonuclease is involved in this function.

Full text

PDF
242

Selected References

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

  1. Hausmann R., Gomez B. Amber mutants of bacteriophages T3 and T7 defective in phage-directed deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis. J Virol. 1967 Aug;1(4):779–792. doi: 10.1128/jvi.1.4.779-792.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Hausmann R., Gomez B. Bacteriophage T3- and T7-directed deoxyribonucleases. J Virol. 1968 Mar;2(3):265–266. doi: 10.1128/jvi.2.3.265-266.1968. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Kiger J. A., Jr, Young E. T., 2nd, Sinsheimer R. L. Purification and properties of intracellular lamba DNA rings. J Mol Biol. 1968 Apr 28;33(2):395–413. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90197-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. LABAW L. W. The origin of phosphorus in Escherichia coli bacteriophages. J Bacteriol. 1951 Aug;62(2):169–173. doi: 10.1128/jb.62.2.169-173.1951. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. LABAW L. W. The origin of phosphorus in the T1, T5, T6, and T7 bacteriophages of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1953 Oct;66(4):429–436. doi: 10.1128/jb.66.4.429-436.1953. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. LEHMAN I. R. The deoxyribonucleases of Escherichia coli. I. Purification and properties of a phosphodiesterase. J Biol Chem. 1960 May;235:1479–1487. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. LOWRY O. H., ROSEBROUGH N. J., FARR A. L., RANDALL R. J. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951 Nov;193(1):265–275. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Richardson C. C. Influence of glucosylation of deoxyribonucleic acid on hydrolysis by deoxyribonucleases of Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem. 1966 May 10;241(9):2084–2092. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Richardson C. C. The 5'-terminal nucleotides of T7 bacteriophage deoxyribonucleic acid. J Mol Biol. 1966 Jan;15(1):49–61. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80208-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Studier F. W., Hausmann R. Integration of two sets of T7 mutants. Virology. 1969 Nov;39(3):587–588. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(69)90106-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Studier F. W., Maizel J. V., Jr T7-directed protein synthesis. Virology. 1969 Nov;39(3):575–586. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(69)90105-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Studier F. W. The genetics and physiology of bacteriophage T7. Virology. 1969 Nov;39(3):562–574. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(69)90104-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Summers W. C., Siegel R. B. Control of template specificity of E. coli RNA polymerase by a phage-coded protein. Nature. 1969 Sep 13;223(5211):1111–1113. doi: 10.1038/2231111a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Weiss B., Jacquemin-Sablon A., Live T. R., Fareed G. C., Richardson C. C. Enzymatic breakage and joining of deoxyribonucleic acid. VI. Further purification and properties of polynucleotide ligase from Escherichia coli infected with bacteriophage T4. J Biol Chem. 1968 Sep 10;243(17):4543–4555. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES