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. 1974 Feb;71(2):422–426. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.2.422

Initiation Characteristics for the Synthesis of Five T4 Phage-Specific Messenger RNAs In Vitro

Peter J Natale 1, John M Buchanan 1
PMCID: PMC388018  PMID: 4360943

Abstract

The involvement of the nucleoside triphosphates in the initiation of the synthesis of the messenger ribonucleic acid of five T4 specific enzymes has been studied. Only one of these, the messenger RNA for deoxynucleosidemonophosphate kinase, can be initiated in the presence of one nucleoside triphosphate, namely ATP. All of the remaining four require the presence of at least two nucleoside triphosphates during the initiation period. The combination of ATP and UTP was best for the initiation of messenger RNA for dihydrofolate reductase, ATP and CTP for deoxycytidylate hydroxymethyltransferase and β-glucosyltransferase, and ATP and GTP for α-glucosyltransferase. We have concluded that there is a great variation in the nucleotide composition and sequence of the initiation sites in T4 DNA. No correlation in the requirements of nucleoside triphosphates during the initiation period could be observed among the five systems studied according to their classification as one type or another of “early” T4 messenger RNA.

Keywords: early enzymes, nucleoside triphosphates, initiation signal

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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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