Purification and some properties of deoxyribonuclease whose synthesis is controlled by gene 49 of bacteriophage T4.

An enzyme which specifically cleaves very-fast-sedimenting DNA of bacteriophage T4 is synthesized after infection of T4, and its synthesis is controlled by gene 49 [1,2]. This enzyme has been proved to be a DNase [2]. We have purified this DNase 3000-fold from extracts of E. coli infected with T4. The purified preparation was practically free from other DNases, and the DNase activity was not detectable in cells infected with a mutant defective in gene 49. The enzyme activity from cells infected with a temperature-sensitive mutant of gene 49 was also temperature-sensitive, suggesting strongly that gene 49 is a structural gene of the DNase. The molecular weight of the wild-type enzyme was estimated to be 50 x 10(3) by gel filtration chromatography. The purified DNase did not cleave native and denatured DNAs of T3 and T4, but cleaved renatured T3 DNA with enzymatically fragmented T3 DNA, indicating that gaps in the DNA duplex are structures susceptible to the DNase. Cleavage of the hybridized T3 DNA occurred when the fragmented DNA was phosphorylated at either the 3' or 5'-strand termini.