Characterization of new regulatory mutants of bacteriophage T4. II. New class of mutants.

New mutants of bacteriophage T4 that overproduce the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase were investigated. Unlike previously described overproducers of this enzyme (Johnson and Hall, 1974), these mutants did not overproduce deoxycytidylate deaminase. Overproduction of dihydrofolate reductase by the new mutants occurred because enzymatic activity continued to increase for a longer period of time in cells infected by the mutants than in cells infected by wild-type phage. This continued increase occurred even in the presence of rifampin, indicating that the overproduction is probably due to a post-transcriptional event. Both these new overproducers and the previously described overproducers were studied by using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The two types of overproducers appeared to be very different. The previously described overproducers showed a delay and/or reduction in the synthesis of several proteins that normally started to be made 4 to 6 min after infection. Several proteins could be seen to be overproduced on the gels. The new overproducers did not show the delay in the synthesis of some proteins and only overproduced a few proteins. The new gene defined by the new overproducers is between the gene coding for thymidine kinase and the gene coding for lysozyme.