Bacteriophage T4 and its relatives

Bacteriophage T4 genome.

Phage T4 has provided countless contributions to the paradigms of genetics and biochemistry. Its complete genome sequence of 168,903 bp encodes about 300 gene products. T4 biology and its genomic sequence provide the best-understood model for modern functional genomics and proteomics. Variations on gene expression, including overlapping genes, internal translation initiation, spliced genes, tra...

Cryptic mutants of bacteriophage T4.

HE apparent mutation rate depends upon a number of contingencies: the Tprimary error rate, the probability o€ repair, error avoidance by the apparatus of DNA replication, and the probability of detection. The probability of detection of those base pair substitutions which produce an amino acid substitution appears to be highly variable, and presumably reflects the sensitivity of polypeptide fun...

Misrepair mutagenesis in bacteriophage T4.

The T4 mutations px, y and 1206 inactivate an error-prone recombination-like repair system, reducing or abolishing mutagenesis by UV irradiation, MMS, and white light irradiation in the presence of the photosensitizer 8MOP. Both px and y increase some spontaneous mutation rates and slightly enhance proflavin mutagenesis; neither mutation affects thymineless or 2AP mutagenesis appreciably, but b...

The genome of bacteriophage T4.

Purification of Bacteriophage T4 Lysozyme*

The lysozyme of bacteriophage T4 was purified to apparent homogeneity from lysates of the phage grown on Escherichia coli. The enzyme is a single polypeptide chain of molecular weight 19,000, with a single NH&erminal methionine residue and a single COOH-terminal leuciue residue. The amino acid composition of the protein was determined. The phage lysozyme exhibits a much greater specific activit...