DNA-RNA polymerase complexes associated with the membrane from bacteriophage T2- or T4-infected Escherichia coli. I. General properties

DNA-RNA polymerase complexes associated with the membrane from bacteriophage T2- or T4-infected Escherichia coli. II. A comparison of in vitro RNA with the in vivo RNA products

Membrane preparations, containing DNA-RNA polymerase from bacteriophage T2- or T4-infected Escherichia coli, caused the asymmetric synthesis of RNA classes similar to those produced sequentially in vivo: 1, Pre-early RNA was formed when a membrane preparation was isolated 1 min after infection. 2, Pre-early and delayed early RNA, in roughly the same proportion as that obtained in vivo, was synthesized by a preparation obtained 6 min after infection. 3, Pre-early, delayed early and late genes were transcribed by preparations isolated from cells during the late period of infection. In late preparations, however, less late and more pre-early RNA was usually synthesized in vitro than that obtained in vivo. Late RNA was not synthesized when a phage T4 mutant defective in either gene 33 or gene 55 was used. Evidence is presented to show that late RNA synthesis cannot solely be accounted for from the completion of already initiated chains.