Inhibition of streptomycin-dependent mutation in Escherichia coli on the lytic growth of bacteriophage lambda.

Spontaneous streptomycin-dependent mutants (StrDA) were isolated from Escherichia coli C600. On C600 StrD, the lytic growth of phage lambda Nam and lambda cI857 was inhibited. After E. coli lysogenic strain 1.1485 (lambda cI857) mutated to StrDA, induction of lambda was decreased greatly. On StrDA of E. coli strains C600 and 1.1485 (lambda cI857), the plating efficiencies and burst sizes of phage T4 and T7 remained normal. Since StrDA is a mutation in the structural gene for ribosomal protein S12, the results obtained in the present study suggest that ribosomes of the StrDA mutants inhibit the lytic growth of lambda phage. The possibility that StrDA ribosomes inhibit the expression of lambda N gene is discussed based on the comparison of the genetic background of lambda cI857 and lambda Nam.