title: Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase activity of thymidine kinase-deficient Escherichia coli K-12 mutant transformed by hybrid plasmids.
abstract: A hybrid plasmid (pAGO) that contains the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) thymidine kinase (TK) gene in the form of a 2-kilobase-pair (kbp) Pvu II fragment inserted at the Pvu II site of plasmid pBR322 was used to transform TK- Escherichia coli K-12 strain KY895. pAGO-transformed KY895 cells exhibited partially restored ability to incorporate [3H]dThd into DNA and an HSv-1-specific TK activity. Bacteria cured of plasmid pAGO (or transformed by plasmid pBR322) did not show enhanced incorporation of [3H]dThd into DNA or HSV-1 TK activity. Plasmid pMH1A was derived from pAGO by deletion of 2067 bp of DNA sequence from pBR322 and 105 bp from the HSV-1 TK gene. E. coli K-12 strain KY895 cells transformed by pMH1A did not show enhanced incorporation of [3H]dThd into bacterial DNA, although pMH1A DNA isolated from transformed KY895 cells, like pAGO DNA, did transform TK- mouse fibroblast [LM(TK-)] cells to the TK+ phenotype. The expression of HSV-1 TK activity by E. coli K-12 suggests that intervening sequences may be absent from the coding region of HSV-1 tk or that the coding region of the gene possesses short intervening sequences which do not disrupt the translational reading frame.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D005814:Genes, Viral; D007739:L Cells; D051379:Mice; D010957:Plasmids; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D013936:Thymidine / Q000378:metabolism; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000235:genetics*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D004279:DNA, Viral; D013937:Thymidine Kinase; D013936:Thymidine