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Degradation of Escherichia coli B Deoxyribonucleic Acid After Infection with Deoxyribonucleic Acid-Defective Amber Mutants of Bacteriophage T7 ¹

Division of General and Experimental Pathology, Department of Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT

The degradation of bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was studied after infection of Escherichia coli B with DNA-negative amber mutants of bacteriophage T7. Degradation occurred in three stages. (i) Release of the DNA from a rapidly sedimenting cellular structure occurred between 5 and 6 min after infection. (ii) The DNA was cleaved endonucleolytically to fragments having a molecular weight of about 2 x 10⁶ between 6 and 10 min after infection. (iii) These fragments of DNA were reduced to acid-soluble products between 7.5 and 15 min after infection. Stage 1 did not occur in the absence of the gene 1 product (ribonucleic acid polymerase sigma factor), stage 2 did not occur in the absence of the gene 3 product (phage T7-induced endonuclease), and stage 3 did not occur in the absence of the gene 6 product.

² Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar.

¹ Supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada and the S. W. Stedman Foundation.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• You, L., Suthers, P. F., Yin, J. (2002). Effects of Escherichia coli Physiology on Growth of Phage T7 In Vivo and In Silico. J. Bacteriol. 184: 1888-1894 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Studier, F. W. (1972). Bacteriophage T7. Science 176: 367-376