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. 1990 Oct;172(10):5617–5623. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.10.5617-5623.1990

Translational efficiency of phi X174 lysis gene E is unaffected by upstream translation of the overlapping gene D reading frame.

U Bläsi 1, K Nam 1, W Lubitz 1, R Young 1
PMCID: PMC526873  PMID: 2145264

Abstract

The lysis gene E of bacteriophage phi X174 is entirely embedded in gene D. Expression studies of genes D and E in Escherichia coli minicells and lysis times obtained in the presence or absence of D translation showed that the simultaneous expression of gene D does not affect protein E production. Thus, unlike other overlapping gene pairs, gene E expression is independent from the upstream translation of gene D. lacZ fusion studies and primer extension inhibition analysis (toeprinting) revealed an intrinsically weak E ribosome-binding site, which seems to be the major factor determining the low expression rate of the gene and thus proper scheduling of cell lysis.

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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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