Ribonucleoside triphosphate concentration-dependent termination of bacteriophage SP01 transcription in vitro by Bacillus subtilis RNA polymerase.

Several sites specifying transcription termination in the bacteriophage SP01 terminal repeat have recently been located and characterized. Some of these were identified as partial terminators. Further characterization of three of the partial terminators leads to the conclusion that they are not sites of inefficient transcriptional termination by Bacillus subtilis RNA polymerase. Rather, these are sites where termination is either completely efficient or fails to occur at all, depending upon the ribonucleoside triphosphate (rNTP) concentration in the reaction mixture. The threshold rNTP concentration, above which termination will not occur, is the same for two of the terminators studied here and different for the third.