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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
. 1977 Jun;74(6):2504–2508. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.6.2504

Bacteriophage phiX174: gene A overlaps gene B.

P J Weisbeek, W E Borrias, S A Langeveld, P D Baas, G A Van Arkel
PMCID: PMC432201  PMID: 267943

Abstract

The map position of several phiX174 mutations in the genes A and B was determined by marker rescue with DNA fragments produced by the restriction enzymes Hha I, HindII, Hae III, and Alu I. All the gene B mutants were found to be located within gene A. Genetic complementation and analysis of phage-specific protein synthesis show that, under restrictive conditions, nonsense mutants in gene A do not block the synthesis and activity of the B protein and nonsense mutants in gene B do not affect the gene A function. The map position of the COOH-terminal end of gene A was determined using an amber mutant that synthesizes slightly shortened A and A proteins. It is concluded from these experiments that gene A overlaps gene B completely (or almost completely) and that the overlap region can be translated in two ways with different reading frames: one frame for the synthesis of the A and A proteins and another for the synthesis of the B protein.

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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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