Complementation experiments between conditional lethal mutants of bacteriophage ϕX174

✍ Scribed by Borrias, Wilhelmina E. ;van de Pol, J. H. ;van de Vate, C. ;van Arkel, G. A.

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 783 KB
• Volume: 105
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0026-8925
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00445685

✦ Synopsis

Complementation experiments with temperature sensitive (ts) and suppressor sensitive (sus) mutants of bacteriophage 0X174 unambiguously revealed five cistrons on the basis of a clear bipartition of burst sizes.

A new group of sus mutants (emeralds) was found, defective in a function essential for growth in Shigella sonnei V64.

The complementation between ts and sus mutants was in general asymmetric in that the yield of ts particles was lower than that of the sus particles. The mutants of one cistron (defective in RF-replication) showed a completely asymmetric complementation behaviour both of ts and sus mutants. The ts mutants of this group, which show to be early, appear to be defective in two functions.

The possibility is discussed that in each cell only one phage genome is replicated. This would explain both kinds of asymmetric complementation and the low burst sizes that were obtained when mutants of particular genes were complemented.