Effects of bacteriophage T4-induced modification of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase on gene expression in vitro.

After T4 bacteriophage infection of E. coli a complex series of events take place in the bacterium, including gross inhibition of host transcription and discrete changes in the classes of the genes of T4 that are transcribed. Accompanying these changes in the pattern of transcription one finds T4-induced changes in the RNA polymerase (EC 2.7.7.6; nucleosidetriphosphate:RNA nucleotidyltransferase). The effects of modified polymerase on transcription can be advantageously analyzed in a DNA-directed cell-free system for protein synthesis. In this system gene activity is measured indirectly by the amounts and types of proteins sythesized. In the DNA-directed cell-free system this modified polymerase, like normal polymerase, transcribes T4 DNA with a high efficiency but transcribes bacteriophage lambda and host DNA very poorly. Polymerase reconstruction experiments show that modification of the alpha subunit of the RNA polymerase is sufficient for inhibition of host transcription. Host transcription is also inhibited in vitro by T4 DNA. This latter type of inhibition is presumed to involve competition between host DNA and T4 DNA for some factor essential for transcription. The T4-modified polymerase transcribes from T4 DNA many of the same genes as normal unmodified polymerase; it also shows a capability for transcribing certain "non-early" T4 genes which is enhanced in the presence of protein-containing extracts from T4-infected cells.