Template properties of bacteriophage T4 vegetative DNA. I. Isolation and characterization of two template fractions from gently lysed T4-infected bacteria.

The synthesis and template properties of T4 vegetative DNA were studied. The DNA-containing material in lysates of cells taken 20 min past T4 infection sediments in sucrose gradients as two major components. Both fractions function as templates for amino acid incorporation in a DNA-dependent in vitro system (coupled transcription-translation). The slower sedimenting activity is not present in uninfected cells and appears in wild type T4-infected cells only after 12 min at 30 degrees, shortly after DNA synthesis starts. It is dependent for its activity on an added S-30 fraction from either uninfected or T4-infected cells and is completely inhibited by deoxyribonuclease or rifampin. On a weight basis the slower sedimenting template is about 30 to 70% as active as mature T4 DNA when supplemented with S-30 extracts from uninfected cells. The spectrum of proteins synthesized in response to the slower sedimenting template is different from that produced in response to mature T4 DNA. In contrast to mature DNA, this template is capable of directing the synthesis of material that precipitates with antiserum directed against whole T4 particles. Thus, it appears capable of directing the synthesis of mRNA for phage structural proteins, i.e. late proteins. The faster sedimenting component is about 8-fold less active for stimulating amino acid incorporation than mature DNA. Significant amounts of RNA polymerase are associated with this DNA in active transcription complexes, yet polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the proteins synthesized in response to this fraction show a pattern that resembles the early proteins made from mature T4 DNA in extracts from uninfected cells.