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. 1979 Nov;76(11):5789–5793. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.11.5789

Isolation and characterization of transducing phage coding for sigma subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase.

C A Gross, F R Blattner, W E Taylor, P A Lowe, R R Burgess
PMCID: PMC411736  PMID: 392509

Abstract

A transducing phage has been isolated with codes for the sigma subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Transducing phage were selected from E. coli shotgun collections of HindIII or Sac I fragments cloned into Charon 25, a new bacteriophage lambda vector that is capble of forming lyosogens at high temperature. Transduction of an E. coli strain carrying a temperature-sensitive mutation in the sigma gene was used for the selection. The positions of restriction sites for Sac I, HindIII, Xho I, Bgl II, and Kpn I in the cloned bacterial DNA segments were determined. Phage containing the HindIII fragment complement both primase (dnaG) and sigma (rpoD) whereas those containing the Sac I fragment complement only sigma. Results of analyses of the proteins made both in vivo after infection of UV-irradiated cells and in vitro in a coupled transcription/translation system suggest that a Sac I site separates the promoter for sigma from the sigma structural gene. The direction of transcription of sigma was determined to be clockwise with respect to the E. coli genetic map.

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Selected References

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