Effect of DNA delay mutations of bacteriophage T4 on genetic recombination.

Studies have been made of the effect of the DNA delay mutations of bacteriophage T4 on growth and genetic recombination in a number of Escherichia coli hosts. DNA delay mutations in genes 39, 52, 58 (61), and 60 result in abnormally high recombination frequencies. These high recombination frequencies are discussed in the context of other observations.     

2-Aminopurine induced mutations in T4 bacteriophage

Summary Treatment of E. coli B bacteria by the base analogue 2-aminopurine, before infection with T4 phages, induces mutations of the transition type into the virus. Treatment of the phage-bacterium complex, only during the first four minutes of the latent period i.e. at a moment where no phage DNA is synthetized, is also mutagenic. The kinetics of acquisition and loss by treated bacteria of mutagenicity and the action of various metabolic inhibitors show that the base analogue is stored into the bacterial or the phage messenger RNA from which it is reused to be incorporated into the phage DNA.This investigation was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (L. A. No 86 et 136), l'Institut Pasteur, la Délégation Générale à la Recherche Scientifique and la Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale.     

Heat mutagenesis in bacteriophage T4: another walk down the transversion pathway.

Extracellular nonreplicating bacteriophage T4 particles accumulate mutations as functions of temperature, time, pH, and ionic environment via two mechanisms: 5-hydroxymethylcytidine deamination produces G.C----A.T transitions while a guanosine modification produces transversions. Neither frameshift mutations nor mutations at A.T base pairs are appreciably induced. We now show that heat induces G.C----T.A transversions which we suggest may arise via a G*.A mispair, in which G* is a modified guanosine that has experienced a glycosylic bond migration. The rate of this reaction at 37 degrees C is sufficient to present a genetic hazard, particularly to large genomes; thus, the lesion is probably efficiently repaired in cellular genomes.     

A hotspot for transition mutations in the rIIB gene of bacteriophage T4

Summary We have previously demonstrated that the sequence 5TGGCAA 3 located at codons 32–33 of the rIIB gene of bacteriophage T4 is a hotspot for transition mutations (Nelson et al. 1981). Here I report the properties of the same TGGCAA sequence introduced into the gene at codons 11–12. The sequence is highly mutable in both locations, suggesting that its high mutability is due to features of the TGGCAA itself and is not dependent on the immediate juxtaposition of additional external sequences. Within this sequence, at either location, only the transition at the central G:C pair frequently arises spontaneously or by 2-aminopurine or ethylmethane sulfonate mutagenesis. However, the 3 G:C pair, in addition, is highly mutable after nitrous acid or hydroxylamine treatment. This suggests that, within the TGGCAA sequence, there are two hotspots which are targeted by different mutagens.     

Studies of opal mutations in bacteriophage T4B

Hydroxylamine-induced amber and opal mutants are localized on the map of gene 47 of bacteriophage T4B. The matched map of amber and opal mutations showed the presence of four paired sites which seemed to have arisen in the triplet coding for tryptophan.In growth studies o opal mutants in gene 47 in a series of Su⁺ strains the number of strains bearing a gene-suppressor for amber or ochre mutations also had a weak suppressor activity for some opal mutants. This suppressor acitivity is supposedly due to a second mutation in gene Su_uga.A comparative study of the phage yield with amber and opal mutations located in the same (paired) triplet in gene 47 has shown that the suppressor activity depends on the location of the mutant site along the gene.Experiments dealing with the induction of reversions by nitrous acid in amber and opal mutants with mutational sites located in the same triplet of gene 47 (mutant pairs) have shown the essential influence of the nucleotide sequence in the triplet on the frequency of induced reverse mutations at the given site.     

Gene rIIB from bacteriophage T4 in genetic recombination

The effect of the rIIB gene on genetic recombination in bacteriophage T4 was studied. Relationships between recombination frequency and the physical distance were determined in three series of isomarker two-factor crosses between rII mutants. In the first series of intergenic crosses (rIIa x rIIb), the rII gene function was restored owing to complementation. In the second series of crosses, identical to the first one, the rIIB gene function was suppressed, because the rIIa parent carried an additional amberlike mutation in the rIIB gene. The recombinants were scored by plating lysates on the amber-suppressor Escherichia coli strain, on which an amberlike mutation was not expressed phenotypically. In the third series, all crosses were intragenic (rIIb x rIIb). In two series of crosses in the absence of the rIIB function, the relationships between recombination frequency and the physical distance were identical, whereas enhanced recombination frequencies were observed in the rIIB+ background. The magnitude of the rIIB-related effect depended on distance, reaching the maximum in the region located 100 to 200 bp from the beginning of the rIIB gene. The possible role of the rIIB protein in genetic recombination is discussed.     

Thermodynamic stability and point mutations of bacteriophage T4 lysozyme

The thermodynamics of melting of bacteriophage T4 lysozyme and four of its mutants have been measured by van't Hoff methods. The effect of pH has been explored and utilized to obtain the dependence of the enthalpy on temperature as suggested by Privalov and co-workers. The enthalpy change is a steep linear function of temperature. ΔC_p is large and constant within experimental error. Changes in ΔH_u are as large as 30% for a single point mutation. Changes in enthalpy are largely compensated by changes in entropy. Changes in stability, as measured by the free energy of unfolding, are smaller than those of ΔH, but are very large in a relative sense, since ΔG is very much smaller than ΔH. Origins of the destabilization caused by mutations are discussed.     

东北湿地沉积物中T4型噬菌体g23基因的多样性

【目的】揭示我国东北典型湿地沉积物中T4型噬菌体g23基因的多样性,明确湿地环境T4型噬菌体群落分布特征,为噬菌体生态学研究提供数据支撑。【方法】采用简并性引物MZIA1bis和MZIA6对采自东北6个地点不同类型湿地沉积物土壤DNA进行PCR扩增,采用克隆测序方法,解析沉积物中T4型噬菌体g23基因组成,通过UniFrac分析T4型噬菌体群落结构在湿地沉积物中与其他环境中的差异。【结果】在东北湿地沉积物中共得到262条不同的g23基因序列,构建的系统进化树分析表明,我国东北湿地沉积物T4型噬菌体g23基因分布与海洋、湖泊及稻田生态系统中g23基因亲缘关系较近,而与东北旱地黑土g23基因分布较远;以g23基因群集表征的T4型噬菌体群落在不同地点湿地中分异明显。【结论】东北湿地生态系统T4型噬菌体群落结构复杂多样,存在着一些未知的噬菌体类群。     

A system of transposon mutagenesis for bacteriophage T4

We have developed a system of transposon mutagenesis for bacteriophage T4. The transposon is a plasmid derivative of Tn5 which contains the essential T4 gene 24, permitting a direct selection for transposition events into a gene 24-deleted phage. The transposition occurred at a frequency of only 10(-7) per progeny phage, even though a dam- host was used to increase transposition frequency. Phage strains with a transposon insert were distinguished from most pseudorevertants of the gene 24 deletion by plaque hybridization using a transposon-specific probe. Mapping analysis showed that the transposon inserts into a large number of sites in the T4 genome, probably with a preference for certain regions. The transposon insertions in four strains were analysed by DNA sequencing using primers that hybridize to each end of the transposon and read out into the T4 genome. In each case, a 9 bp T4 target sequence had been duplicated and the insertions had occurred exactly at the IS50 ends of the transposon, demonstrating that bona fide transposition had occurred. Finally, the transposon insert strains were screened on the TabG Escherichia coli strain, which inhibits the growth of T4 motA mutants, and a motA transposon insert strain was found.     

On the role of the single-stranded DNA binding protein of bacteriophage T4 in DNA metabolism. I. Isolation and genetic characterization of new mutations in gene 32 of bacteriophage T4

Summary The product of gene 32 of bacteriophage T4 is a single-stranded DNA binding protein involved in T4 DNA replication, recombination and repair. Functionally differentiated regions of the gene 32 protein have been described by protein chemistry. As a preliminary step in a genetic dissection of these functional domains, we have isolated a large number of missense mutants of gene 32. Mutant isolation was facilitated by directed mutagenesis and a mutant bacterial host which is unusually restrictive for missense mutations in gene 32. We have isolated over 100 mutants and identified 22 mutational sites. A physical map of these sites has been constructed and has shown that mutations are clustered within gene 32. The possible functional significance of this clustering is considered.     

Clone size distributions of mutations induced by ethyl methanesulfonate in bacteriophage T4

Size distributions of mutant clones can reveal important aspects of the mutation process. Previously published data on mutant clones induced by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in bacteriophage T4 generated a distribution that was essentially flat, implying a mutagenic mechanism involving only rare mispairing by reacted bases. Here, methods for estimating the spontaneous component of such a distribution are used to generate a corrected distribution. The corrected distribution is strongly peaked, implying frequent (but not obligatory) mispairing. Frequent mispairing is in accord with current views of the fates of DNA lesions believed to mediate EMS-induced mutagenesis.     

Mutator mutations in bacteriophage T4 gene 32 (DNA unwinding protein).

Bacteriophage T4 gene 32 encodes a DNA unwinding protein required for DNA replication, repair, and recombination. Gene 32 temperature-sensitive mutations enhance virtually all base pair substitution mutation rates.     

Spontaneous temperature-sensitive mutations in bacteriophage T7.

Attempts to recover temperature-sensitive mutations affecting genes 13 and 14 (virion proteins) in bacteriophage T7 by analysis of amber revertants were confounded by the frequent occurrence of spontaneous temperature-sensitive mutations in other genes. These incidental temperature-sensitive mutations are physically distinct from but may be functionally related to genes 13 and 14, as shown by complementation and recombination studies. The possibility that these incidental temperature-sensitive mutations represent secondary-site suppressors of the pseudonormal suppressed amber products is discussed.