Skip to main content
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
. 1982 Apr;79(7):2236–2239. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.7.2236

Mutant lambda phage repressor with a specific defect in its positive control function.

L Guarente, J S Nye, A Hochschild, M Ptashne
PMCID: PMC346166  PMID: 6212933

Abstract

The lambda phage repressor is both a positive and a negative regulator of gene transcription. We describe a mutant lambda phage repressor that has specifically lost its activator function. The mutant binds to the lambda phage operator sites and represses the lambda phage promoters PR and PL. However, it fails to stimulate transcription from the promoter PRM. The mutation lies in that portion of repressor--namely, the amino-terminal domain--that has been shown [Sauer, R. T., Pabo, C. O., Meyer, B. J., Ptashne, M. & Backman, K. C. (1979) Nature (London) 279, 396-400] to mediate stimulation of PRM. We suggest that the mutation has altered that region of repressor which, in the wild-type, contacts RNA polymerase to activate transcription from PRM.

Full text

PDF
2236

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Backman K., Ptashne M., Gilbert W. Construction of plasmids carrying the cI gene of bacteriophage lambda. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Nov;73(11):4174–4178. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.11.4174. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Congress versus cancer. Nature. 1981 Nov 5;294(5836):1–2. doi: 10.1038/294001b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Guarente L., Lauer G., Roberts T. M., Ptashne M. Improved methods for maximizing expression of a cloned gene: a bacterium that synthesizes rabbit beta-globin. Cell. 1980 Jun;20(2):543–553. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90640-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hawley D. K., McClure W. R. In vitro comparison of initiation properties of bacteriophage lambda wild-type PR and x3 mutant promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Nov;77(11):6381–6385. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.11.6381. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Johnson A. D., Meyer B. J., Ptashne M. Interactions between DNA-bound repressors govern regulation by the lambda phage repressor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Oct;76(10):5061–5065. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.10.5061. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Johnson A. D., Pabo C. O., Sauer R. T. Bacteriophage lambda repressor and cro protein: interactions with operator DNA. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):839–856. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65078-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Koga H., Horiuchi T. Studies on lambda virulent mutants. II. Anti-repression and Vir-repression function of lambdavirC and lambdavirCvirR. Mol Gen Genet. 1973 Aug 17;124(3):219–232. doi: 10.1007/BF00293093. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Maurer R., Meyer B., Ptashne M. Gene regulation at the right operator (OR) bacteriophage lambda. I. OR3 and autogenous negative control by repressor. J Mol Biol. 1980 May 15;139(2):147–161. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(80)90302-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. A new method for sequencing DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Feb;74(2):560–564. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.2.560. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Meyer B. J., Kleid D. G., Ptashne M. Lambda repressor turns off transcription of its own gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Dec;72(12):4785–4789. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.12.4785. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Meyer B. J., Maurer R., Ptashne M. Gene regulation at the right operator (OR) of bacteriophage lambda. II. OR1, OR2, and OR3: their roles in mediating the effects of repressor and cro. J Mol Biol. 1980 May 15;139(2):163–194. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(80)90303-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Meyer B. J., Ptashne M. Gene regulation at the right operator (OR) of bacteriophage lambda. III. lambda repressor directly activates gene transcription. J Mol Biol. 1980 May 15;139(2):195–205. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(80)90304-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pabo C. O., Sauer R. T., Sturtevant J. M., Ptashne M. The lambda repressor contains two domains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Apr;76(4):1608–1612. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.4.1608. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ptashne M., Backman K., Humayun M. Z., Jeffrey A., Maurer R., Meyer B., Sauer R. T. Autoregulation and function of a repressor in bacteriophage lambda. Science. 1976 Oct 8;194(4261):156–161. doi: 10.1126/science.959843. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ptashne M., Jeffrey A., Johnson A. D., Maurer R., Meyer B. J., Pabo C. O., Roberts T. M., Sauer R. T. How the lambda repressor and cro work. Cell. 1980 Jan;19(1):1–11. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90383-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Sauer R. T. DNA sequence of the bacteriophage gama cI gene. Nature. 1978 Nov 16;276(5685):301–302. doi: 10.1038/276301a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sauer R. T., Pabo C. O., Meyer B. J., Ptashne M., Backman K. C. Regulatory functions of the lambda repressor reside in the amino-terminal domain. Nature. 1979 May 31;279(5712):396–400. doi: 10.1038/279396a0. [DOI] [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