In vivo effects of recBC DNase, exonuclease I, and DNA polymerases of Escherichia coli on the infectivity of native and single-stranded DNA of bacteriophage T7.

The effect of several enzymes of the DNA metabolism of Escherichia coli on the biological activity of native and single-stranded T7 DNA was studied by transfection of lysozyme-EDTA spheroplasts prepared from various E. coli mutants. It is shown that the presence of the recBC DNase in the recipient cells decreases the infectivity of native and denatured DNA by about 100- and 10-fold, respectively. Lack of exonuclease I did not stimulate transfection by single-stranded DNA. Separated light (l) and heavy (r) strands of T7 DNA are fully infective, with a linear dependence on DNA concentrations, whereas heat-denatured DNA shows a two-hit kinetics. Single-stranded DNA was observed to depend on a functional DNA polymerase III for infectivity in polAB cells, whereas transfection with native T7 DNA was independent of the host DNA polymerases. The results are discussed with respect to the mode of T7 DNA replication.