title: The effects of central asymmetry on the propagation of palindromic DNA in bacteriophage lambda are consistent with cruciform extrusion in vivo.
abstract: The propagation of lambda phages carrying long perfect palindromes has been compared with that of phages carrying imperfect palindromes with small regions of central asymmetry. The perfect palindromes confer a more deleterious phenotype than those with central asymmetry and the severity of the phenotype declines with the length of asymmetry in the range from O to 27 base pairs. These results argue that a center-dependent reaction is involved in the phenotypic effects of palindromic DNA sequences, consistent with the idea that cruciform extrusion occurs in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Chalker
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Okely
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Davison
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Leach
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D004261:DNA Replication; D004274:DNA, Recombinant / Q000235:genetics*; D004278:DNA, Superhelical / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010641:Phenotype; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D004278:DNA, Superhelical