title: A molecular analysis of terminase cuts in headful packaging of Salmonella phage P22.
abstract: Fragments of DNA molecules of Salmonella phage 22 which represent the molecular termini created by the terminase reaction have been cloned and sequenced. The terminase cleavage separates a headful-sized piece of DNA from the concatemeric precursor; by successful cloning strategy it was shown that the terminase produces blunt ends. The termini of 20 different phage DNA molecules fall into a region located between about 600 and 4000 bp from the pac signal and show a Gaussian distribution. The average terminal redundancy was calculated to be about 2230 bp (= 5.3%) and is therefore higher than was previously reported. A comparison of the nucleotides flanking the terminal bases of 20 different end clones does not support the suggestion that the terminase recognizes some specific sequence and/or structural information in determining the actual cleavage site.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Genetik und Mikrobiologie, Universität München, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmieger
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Taleghani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meierl
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012483:Salmonella Phages / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; C030894:terminase