Chemical stability of bacteriophage T7 early mRNA

Rescue of abortive T7 gene 2 mutant phage infection by rifampin

Infection of Escherichia coli with T7 gene 2 mutant phage was abortive; concatemeric phage DNA was synthesized but was not packaged into the phage head, resulting in an accumulation of DNA species shorter in size than the phage genome, concomitant with an accumulation of phage head-related structures. Appearance of concatemeric T7 DNA in gene 2 mutant phage infection during onset of T7 DNA replication indicates that the product of gene 2 was required for proper processing or packaging of concatemer DNA rather than for the synthesis of T7 progeny DNA or concatemer formation. This abortive infection by gene 2 mutant phage could be rescued by rifampin. If rifampin was added at the onset of T7 DNA replication, concatemeric DNA molecules were properly packaged into phage heads, as evidenced by the production of infectious progeny phage. Since the gene 2 product acts as a specific inhibitor of E. coli RNA polymerase by preventing the enzyme from binding T7 DNA, uninhibited E. coli RNA polymerase in gene 2 mutant phage-infected cells interacts with concatemeric T7 DNA and perturbs proper DNA processing unless another inhibitor of the enzyme (rifampin) was added. Therefore, the involvement of gene 2 protein in T7 DNA processing may be due to its single function as the specific inhibitor of the host E. coli RNA polymerase.

Translation of T7 RNA in vitro without cleavage by RNase III

T7 early mRNA's are generated from a high-molecular-weight precursor RNA by site-specific RNase III cleavage. When T7 DNA is transcribed in vitro by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase, the transcript is a large, single-piece RNA equivalent to the in vivo precursor RNA. The T7 RNA synthesized in vitro can be translated as a polycistronic messenger without cleavage by RNase III. All T7 early proteins are synthesized in an RNase III-free, protein-synthesizing system directed by the uncleaved T7 RNA.