title: Effects of all single base substitutions in the loop of boxB on antitermination of transcription by bacteriophage lambda's N protein.
abstract: The 'N' antitermination proteins of lambdoid bacteriophages are essential for overcoming multiple transcription terminators located within the major early operons of these phages (1). In order for N proteins to function, a genome sequence specifying N utilization, nut, must be located within an operon, between the promoter and the terminators (2). Two components have been identified within nut: 8-base boxA, conserved among different phages and implicated in the recognition of host NusA protein, required for N function (3); 15-base boxB, an interrupted palindrome (4), diverged in sequence among different lambdoid phages and hypothesized to be the site of recognition for different N proteins, also diverged in sequence (5). Here we apply a plasmid for testing termination and antitermination of transcription (6) to identify mutations at all positions in the 5-7 base loop of lambda's boxB. Almost every base change at any position within the 5-7 base boxB loop was found to constrain antitermination of transcription by the N protein of bacteriophage lambda. These observations extend previous mutational knowledge of nut (7) and are consistant with the hypothesis that the boxB loop is the direct site of recognition for N protein. Variations among the effects of different base changes suggest differential contacts between N protein and bases of the boxB loop, whether in DNA or RNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Doelling
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Franklin
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D005809:Genes, Regulator; D005814:Genes, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D009876:Operon; D010957:Plasmids; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013728:Terminator Regions, Genetic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
chemical_list: C059417:N protein, Bacteriophage lambda; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins