Control of Bacteriophage-induced Enzyme Synthesis in Cells Infected with a Temperature-sensitive Mutant

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The timing of “early” and “late” protein synthesis in Escherichia coli infected with T-even bacteriophage was studied with a temperature-sensitive phage mutant, T4 tsL13. This strain was completely unable to direct the synthesis of phage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at 44 C because it makes a deoxycytidylate hydroxymethylase which cannot act at that temperature. However, the mutant did multiply normally at 30 C. No detectable formation of the late protein, lysozyme, occurred at 44 C, in agreement with the idea, proposed by several workers, that DNA replication is necessary for activation of late genetic functions. However, the formation of an early enzyme, thymidylate synthetase, was shut off at about 10 min, as in normal infection. This implied that separate mechanisms were responsible for cessation of early functions and activation of late ones. That the infected cell at 44 C retained the capacity for synthesis of early enzymes was shown by the fact that DNA synthesis occurred after a culture was transferred from 44 to 30 C as late as 30 min after infection. This synthesis was inhibited by chloramphenicol, indicating that de novo synthesis of an early enzyme can take place at a late period in development. It is suggested that cells infected under normal conditions maintained an appreciable rate of early enzyme synthesis throughout the course of infection.

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