The role of rho in bacteriophage T4 development. II. mot-dependent (middle mode) RNA synthesis

Endoribonuclease RegB from bacteriophage T4 is necessary for the degradation of early but not middle or late mRNAs

The RegB endoribonuclease from bacteriophage T4 cleaves early mRNAs specifically in the middle of the sequence GGAG. We show here that RegB is required for the degradation of bulk T4 early mRNA. In the absence of RegB, the chemical half-life of early transcripts is increased nearly fourfold, whereas their functional half-life is increased twofold. RegB also regulates the translation of several prereplicative genes. The synthesis of several early proteins is down-regulated, probably as a consequence of RegB cleavages in the Shine-Dalgarno sequence of these genes. The synthesis of several other proteins is up-regulated, suggesting that processing by RegB might improve translation by changing the conformation of a transcript. In contrast, RegB does not affect the average half-life of middle and late mRNA. An analysis of the susceptibility to RegB of many GGAG motifs carried by these mRNA species showed that most middle and all late GGAG-carrying mRNAs escape RegB processing in spite of the fact that the enzyme is acting at least until ten minutes post-infection. The sensitivity or resistance to RegB observed during phage infection could be reproduced in uninfected Escherichia coli cells and in vitro. This shows that the GGAG-carrying RNAs that are uncut during T4 infection are not substrates, whatever the period of the T4 cycle when the transcripts are made.

Characterisation of the bacteriophage T4 comC alpha 55.6 and comCJ mutants. A possible role in an antitermination process

We have performed a new screen for T4 mutants (comC) that overcome the phage growth restriction caused by the Escherichia coli rho/tabC mutants. We show that one such mutant (comCJ) identifies a different gene from that identified by canonical comC mutants. We compare the regulation of T4 prereplicative transcription in a rho/tabC mutant infected by T4 wild-type, by a canonical comC mutant (comC alpha 55.6) and by comCJ. The transcription rates of the two prereplicative genes 39 and 43 is depressed in a T4 wild-type infected tabC host mutant. When comC alpha 55.6 and/or comCJ single and double mutants are the infecting phages, transcription of genes 39 and 43 is resumed to different extents; in particular, in the double mutant infections there appears to be a synergistic effect on transcription. Furthermore, we find that the comC alpha 55.6 phage mutant affects the transcription rate of the gene rIIA in a wild-type host.

New control elements of bacteriophage T4 pre-replicative transcription

Bacteriophage T4 pre-replicative genes are transcribed, by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase, in two alternative modes: an early mode and a middle mode. Middle mode transcription is under the control of at least one viral protein, pmotA. We have identified two additional viral genes, motB and motC, that map in the dispensable region of the T4 genome, between genes 39 and 56. pmotB and pmotC are diffusible factors which provide an alternative to the motA dependent mode of middle transcription of many T4 genes. Deletions of motB and motC are in fact lethal only in combination with a motA mutant. motB controls one of the alternative modes of transcription of the rIIA gene. When motA or motB are missing, transcription of rIIA is quantitatively unaffected; when both are missing the transcription rate drops by about 75%. Control of transcription of the tRNA gene cluster is more complex. Transcription of subcluster 2 is maximally reduced (70%) only by deletions that, besides motB, cut out an adjacent region. We guess that this adjacent region codes for an additional control element, which we call motC. The motB gene is situated in a 750-base region between the left end-points of del(39-56)-1 and -4.

T4-induced antipolarity: temporal heterogeneity in response of early transcription units

When T4 infects Escherichia coli in the absence of protein synthesis, rho-mediated termination takes place on early polycistronic transcription units. During the early period of development, the appearance of delayed early transcripts becomes insensitive to the inhibition of protein synthesis. In the absence of the T4 gene product mot, an inducer for the middle mode of transcription, only the early polycistronic messengers are synthesized. In mot- -infected cells, the synthesis of the distal transcripts still becomes completely insensitive to the polar effect of chloramphenicol. This happens because potential rho-sensitive termination sites are not used in these cells. In this respect, overcoming polarity induced by chloramphenicol can be called a process of antitermination. The mot-independent antitermination can be studied by addition of chloramphenicol during infections with mot- bacteriophage. The effect is stable; it allows a constant percentage of rho-sensitive termination sites in the cell to be traversed by RNA polymerase for at least 10 min at 42 degrees C. By examining six different transcription units on the T4 genome, we find that each transcription unit has a cis-acting component (or components) which determines when its rho-sensitive termination site stops functioning. In extreme cases, rho acts with 100% efficiency in some transcription units, whereas it is almost inactive in others.