Replication and maturation of phage P22 in a mutant of Salmonella typhimurium temperature sensitive in initiation of DNA replication.

Summary TB37 is a dna A-mutant of Salmonella typhimurium in which the initiation of DNA replication at the origin is stopped at 42°C. DNA synthesis in uninfected cells of this strain and in cells infected by phage P22 was followed by the pulse labelling technique. DNA replication ceases completely after about 50 minutes at the high temperature. After lytic infection with P22 (c2) at this time, DNA synthesis starts immediately and increases at a rate well comparable to the permissive control. Obviously the temperature sensitive function of the dnaA-product is dispensable for P22 DNA replication, especially for its initiation. This result is confirmed by the normal yield of phage particles under these conditions, provided that a late step in P22 maturation which naturally is temperature sensitive can proceed at low temperature. If TB37 is infected at 42°C with P22 wild type, an unexpected high rate of phage controlled DNA synthesis is observed. Preliminary results seem to indicate that the process of integration is a prerequisite for part of this synthesis.