Table III. The nature of the termination and initiation codon does not influence the translational coupling, but the initiation codon in appropriate positions relative to the termination codon is important.

Bold triplets indicate the termination codon of the coat gene. Double underlining shows the initiation codon of the lysis gene. Italicized letters represent the base substitutions. Dashes denote the same nucleotides as pLWT.

^aThe number of plus signs reflects the ratio of the cell density, OD₆₆₀(IPTG+)/OD₆₆₀(IPTG–), which is shown in parentheses, after 3 h incubation as described in Materials and methods.

^bE.coli 594(Su^–) cells were used because JM109 cells have an amber (UAG) suppressor tRNA.

^cIn E.coli JM109, termination takes place at UGA downstream from AUG because UAG is read as a sense codon in Su⁺ cells.