A study of possible mechanisms of the RNA-polymerase involement in mutagenesis in phage T4.

Spontaneous and induced mutation frequencies of phage T4 have been measured in Escherichia coli strains containing altered RNA-polymerase. In the strain E. coli rif-r stl-r, with double RNA-polymerase mutation, spontaneous reversion rates were increased in different mutants of phage T4. The study of base analogues mutagenesis in rUV mutants of phage T4 has shown that the introduction of RNA-polymerase mutations did not increase reversion rates in a mutant of frame-shift type but enhanced the rate of mutagenesis in phage mutants with lesions of transition type.