Two new early bacteriophage T4 genes, repEA and repEB, that are important for DNA replication initiated from origin E.

ABSTRACT: Two new, small, early bacteriophage T4 genes, repEA and repEB, located within the origin E (oriE) region of T4 DNA replication, affect functioning of this origin. An important and unusual property of the oriE region is that it is transcribed at early and late periods after infection, but in opposite directions (from complementary DNA strands). The early transcripts are mRNAs for RepEA and RepEB proteins, and they can serve as primers for leading-strand DNA synthesis. The late transcripts, which are genuine antisense RNAs for the early transcripts, direct synthesis of virion components. Because the T4 genome contains several origins, and because recombination can bypass a primase requirement for retrograde synthesis, neither defects in a single origin nor primase deficiencies are lethal in

SUBMITTER: Vaiskunaite R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC94188 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature