Summary
During vegetative growth, the su+3-transducing phage of Φ80 segregates progeny phage which has lost the su+3-transducing fragment. Average burst size of the transducing phage is less than one tenth that of the segregant. Burst size of the transducing phage was recovered to the normal level when segregant-type phage was co-infected as a helper. We suspected that the maturation process was partially inhibited by a polar effect caused by insertion of the su+3-transducing fragment into the continuity of Φ80 late genes. To determine which gene expressions are partially inhibited in the transducing phage, various amber mutants were used as the helper phage and burst size of the transduzing phage was measured in the system where excision of the transducing fragment was inhibited. The results indicated that gene expression of a group of genes 4 to 13 was reduced in the transducing phage, while that of a group of genes 1, 2 and 3 was not. The specificity of partial inhibition of gene function agrees well with the results of physical mapping of the transducing fragment; that is, the fragment was inserted within the region of gene 4 by heteroduplex analysis (Yamagishi et al., 1976a).
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Murakami, A., Inokuchi, H., Ozeki, H. et al. Polarity effect on Φ80 late gene expression caused by insertion of su+3-transducing fragment. Molec. gen. Genet. 155, 139–143 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393152
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393152