The requirement of nonsense suppression for the development of several phages

Summary A spontaneous streptomycin-resistant Escherichia coli mutant which is temperature-sensitive for suppression of a nonsense codon was studied for its ability to propagate phages T2, T4D, T5, K, f2, MS2, R17, Q, as well as filamentous phages fl, fd and M13. Of all phages tested, only the growth of Q, , and filamentous phages is inhibited in the mutant at 42° C. This selective inhibition suggests that, like Q, and filamentous phages also require a read-through protein(s) which results from suppression of a termination codon.