Summary
The ral gene of phage λ has previously been shown to counteract host controlled restriction and the enhance DNA modification in Escherichia coli (Zabeau et al., 1980). The studies presented in this paper demonstrate that although ral plays only a minor role in the lytic development of phage λ, it counteracts different E. coli functions, which, like the E. coli restriction system, are ATP dependent. First, ral was found to specifically decrease the efficiency of recombination mediated by the RecBC pathway. Secondly, we observed that E. coli strains in which ral is constitutively expressed, exhibit phenotypes analogous to those of strains carrying mutations in the transcription termination factor rho. In addition, in rho deficient strains general recombination and host controlled restriction are both reduced. These findings strongly suggest that ral might be a second anti-termination function, which in contrast to the λN gene product directly antagonizes rho.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adhya, S.L., Gottesmann, M., De Crombrugghe, B.: Release of polarity in Escherichia coli by gene N of phage λ: termination and antitermination of transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 71, 2534–2538 (1974)
Adhya, S.L., Shapiro, J.A.: The galactose operon of E. coli K12. I. Structural and pleiotropic mutations of the operon. Genetics 62, 231–247 (1969)
Arber, W.: DNA modification and restriction. Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Mol. Biol. 14, 1–37 (1974)
Bertani, G., Weigle, J.J.: Host controlled variation in bacterial viruses. J. Bacteriol. 65, 113–121 (1953)
Clark, A.J.: Characteristics of some multiple recombination deficient strains of E. coli. J. Bacteriol. 100, 231–239 (1969)
Court, D., Campbell, A.: Gene regulation in N mutants of λ bacteriophage. J. Virol. 9, 938–945 (1972)
Das, A., Court, D., Adhya, S.: Isolation and characterization of conditional lethal mutants of Escherichia coli defective in transeription termination factor rho. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 73, 1959–1963 (1976)
Das, A., Merrill, L.C., Adhya, S.: Interaction of RNA polymerase and rho transcription termination: coupled ATPase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 4823–4828 (1978)
Debrouwere, L., Zabeau, M., Van Montagu, M., Schell, J.: The ral gene of phage λ. II. Isolation and characterization of ral deficient mutants. Mol. Gen. Genet. 179, 75–80 (1980)
Eskin, B., Linn, S.: The deoxyribonucleic acid modification and restriction enzymes from Escherichia coli B. II. Purification, subunit structure and catalytic properties of the restriction endonuclease. J. Biol. Chem. 247, 6183–6191 (1972)
Friedman, D.I., Wilgus, G.S., Mural, R.J.: Gene N regulator function of phage λ imm21: Evidence that a site of N action differs from a site of N recognition. J. Mol. Biol. 81, 505–516 (1973)
Greenblatt, J.: Regulation of the expression of the N gene of bacteriophage lambda. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70, 421–424 (1973)
Greer, H.: The kil gene of bacteriophage lambda. Virology 66, 589–604 (1975)
Hofnung, M.: Divergent operons and the genetic structure of the moltose B region in E. coli K12. Genetics 76, 169–184 (1974)
Howard, B.H., De Crombrugghe, B.: ATP-ase activity required for termination of transcription by the Escherichia coli protein vector δ. J. Biol. Chem. 251, 2520–2524 (1976)
Jacob, F., Wollman, E.L.: Etude génétique d'un bactériophage tempéré d'Escherichia coli. III. Effet du rayonnement ultraviolet sur la recombinaison génétique. Ann. Inst. Pasteur Lille 88, 724–729 (1955)
Lowery-Goldhammer, C., Richardson, J.P.: An RNA-dependent nucleoside triphosphate phosphohydrolase (ATP-ase) associated with rho termination factor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 71, 2003–2007 (1974)
Malone, R.E., Chattoraj, D.K.: The role of chi mutation in the pi-phenotype of phage λ: lack of evidence for a gene delta. Mol. Gen. Genet. 143, 35–41 (1975)
Michels, C.A., Reznikoff, W.S.: The gradient of polarity of z gene nonsense mutations in trp-lac fusion strains of Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 55, 119–122 (1971)
Michels, C.A., Zipser, D.: The non-linear relationship between the enzyme activity and the structural protein concentration of thiogalactoside transacetylase of E. coli. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 34, 522–527 (1969)
Miller, J.H.: Experiments in molecular genetics, p. 466. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1972
Roberts, J.W.: Termination factor for RNA synthesis. Nature 224, 1168–1174 (1969)
Schwartz, M.: On the function of the N cistron in phage lambda. Virology 40, 23–33 (1970)
Signer, E.R., Manly, K.F., Brunstetter, M.: Deletion mapping of the cIII-N region of bacteriophage lambda. Virology 39, 137–141 (1969)
Signer, E.R., Weil, J.: Recombination in bacteriophage lambda. I. Mutants deficient in general recombination. J. Mol. Biol. 34, 261–271 (1968)
Stahl, F.W., Crasemann, J.M., Stahl, M.M.: Rec-mediated recombinational hot spot activity in bacteriophage lambda. III. Chi mutations are site mutations stimulating Rec-mediated recombination. J. Mol. Biol. 94, 203–212 (1975)
Stahl, M.M., Stahl, F.W.: DNA synthesis associated with recombination. I. Recombination in a DNA-negative host. In: The bacteriophage lambda (A.D. Hershey, ed.), pp. 431–442. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1971
Vovis, G.F., Zinder, N.D.: Methylation of F1 DNA by a restriction endonuclease from Escherichia coli B. J. Mol. Biol. 95, 557–568 (1975)
Vovis, G.F., Horiuchi, K., Zinder, N.D.: Kinetics of methylation of DNA by a restriction endonuclease from Escherichia coli B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 71, 3810–3813 (1974)
Zabeau, M., Friedman, S., Van Montagu, M., Schell, J.: The ral gene of phage λ. I. Identification of a non-essential gene that modulates restriction and modification in E. coli. Mol. Gen. Genet. 179, 63–73 (1980)
Zibeau, M., Foberts, R.J.: The role of restriction endonucleases in molecular genetics. In: Molecular genetics (J.H. Taylor, ed.), Vol. III, pp. 1–63. New York: Academic Press 1979
Zipser, D., Zabell, S., Rothman, J., Grodzicker, T., Wenk, M., Novitski, M.: Fine structure of the gradient of polarity in the z gene of the lac operon of Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 49, 251–254 (1970)
Zissler, J., Signer, E.R., Schaefer, F.: The role of recombination in growth of bacteriophage lambda. I. The gamma gene. In: The bacteriophage lambda (A.D. Hershey, ed.), pp. 455–468. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1971a
Zissler, J., Signer, E.R., Schaefer, F.: The role of recombination in growth bacteriophage lambda. II. Inhibition of growth by prophage P2. In: The bacteriophage lambda (A.D. Hershey, ed.), pp. 469–475. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1971b
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by W. Arber
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Debrouwere, L., Van Montagu, M. & Schell, J. The ral gene phage λ. Molec. Gen. Genet. 179, 81–88 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268449
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00268449