title: An internal AUU codon initiates a smaller peptide encoded by bacteriophage T4 baseplate gene 26.
abstract: Bacteriophage T4 baseplate gene 26 codes for two in-frame overlapping peptides with identical C-terminal regions. By site-directed mutagenesis we have now determined that an internal AUU, codon 114 of gene 26, is used as the initiation codon for the synthesis of a smaller peptide (gp26*). Thus gene 26* gives rise to a peptide of 95 amino acid residues with an Mr of 10,873, while the complete gene 26 encodes a peptide of 208 amino acid residues of M(r) 23,880. Expression of gene 26* is shown to depend on the RNA secondary structure in the translational initiation region of this gene.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Vilnius.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nivinskas
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vaiskunaite
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raudonikiene
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001345:Autoradiography; D001483:Base Sequence; D003062:Codon; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D015870:Gene Expression; D005814:Genes, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010957:Plasmids; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013604:T-Phages / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral