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
. 1972 Jan;69(1):55–59. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.1.55

Initiation, Release, and Reinitiation of RNA Chains by Bacteriophage-T3-Induced Polymerase from T3 DNA Templates*

Umadas Maitra 1, Henry H Huang 1
PMCID: PMC427543  PMID: 4550510

Abstract

Bacteriophage T3-induced RNA polymerase, upon copying its specific template, native T3 DNA, initiates RNA chains only with GTP. Denaturation of the DNA results in loss of template specificity for the polymerase. With denatured T3 DNA as template, T3 polymerase initiates RNA chains with both ATP and GTP, and the average length of the resulting RNA chains is markedly reduced. Studies of the polymerase reaction with native T3 DNA in vitro show that T3 polymerase is able to terminate RNA synthesis with the release of RNA chains from the template DNA. Polymerase is also released in the process and, acting catalytically, reinitiates new RNA chains. Many moles of RNA chains are thus formed per mole of polymerase added to the reaction mixture.

Keywords: E. coli, guanosine triphosphate terminus, purified polymerase

Full text

PDF
55

Selected References

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

  1. Chamberlin M., McGrath J., Waskell L. New RNA polymerase from Escherichia coli infected with bacteriophage T7. Nature. 1970 Oct 17;228(5268):227–231. doi: 10.1038/228227a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dunn J. J., Bautz F. A., Bautz E. K. Different template specificities of phage T3 and T7 RNA polymerases. Nat New Biol. 1971 Mar 17;230(11):94–96. doi: 10.1038/newbio230094a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Maitra U., Barash F. DNA-dependent synthesis of RNA by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase: release and reinitiation of RNA chains from DNA templates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969 Oct;64(2):779–786. doi: 10.1073/pnas.64.2.779. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Maitra U., Hurwitz H. The role of DNA in RNA synthesis, IX. Nucleoside triphosphate termini in RNA polymerase products. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1965 Sep;54(3):815–822. doi: 10.1073/pnas.54.3.815. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Maitra U., Hurwitz J. The role of deoxyribonucleic acid in ribonucleic acid synthesis. 13. Modified purification procedure and additional properties of ribonucleic acid polymerase from Escherichia coli W. J Biol Chem. 1967 Nov 10;242(21):4897–4907. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Maitra U. Induction of a new RNA polymerase in Escherichia coli infected with bacteriophage T3. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1971 Apr 16;43(2):443–450. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(71)90773-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Maitra U., Nakata Y., Hurwitz J. The role of deoxyribonucleic acid in ribonucleic acid synthesis. XIV. A study of the initiation of ribonucleic acid synthesis. J Biol Chem. 1967 Nov 10;242(21):4908–4918. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. NYGAARD A. P., HALL B. D. FORMATION AND PROPERTIES OF RNA-DNA COMPLEXES. J Mol Biol. 1964 Jul;9:125–142. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(64)80095-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Roberts J. W. Termination factor for RNA synthesis. Nature. 1969 Dec 20;224(5225):1168–1174. doi: 10.1038/2241168a0. [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