Conditional lethal mutants of bacteriophage T4 unable to grow on a streptomycin resistant mutant of Escherichia coli.

Sixteen conditional lethal mutants of bacteriophage T4D have been isolated which grow on Escherichia coli CR63 (a su+ streptomycin-sensitive K12 strain) but are restricted by CR/s (a streptomycin-resistant derivative of CR63). These mutants have been given the prefix str. Four of these mutants are amber and 12 appear to be missense. Eleven of the 12 missense mutants appear to be "pseudo-amber" (i.e. they are restricted by a su- E. coli B strain but not by a su- K12 strain); the other missense mutant was not restricted by either B or K12. The str mutations mapped in 12 different genes. Most were clustered in a region of early genes (gene 56 to gene 47). Fifty-eight amber and 10 "pseudo-amber" mutants isolated previously for their inability to grow on E. coli B were tested for restriction by CR/s. All the amber mutants grew normally on CR/s, whereas all 10 "pseudo-amber" mutants were restricted by CR/s. This implies that the phenotype of the "pseudo-amber" mutants is the result of a ribosomal difference between the permissive host CR63 and the restrictive hosts B and CR/s. These str mutants should prove to be useful alternatives to amber mutants for genetic and biochemical studies of bacteriophage T4 and for studies of the E. coli ribosome. It should be possible ot isolate similar mutants in other bacteriophages provided that streptomycin resistant hosts are available.