Scarce adenylation in bacteriophage T4 mRNAs.
The degradation of mRNA is crucial for the rapid shift of bacteriophage T4 gene expression from early to late. The present study was conducted to investigate whether T4 mRNA is polyadenylated or not, because polyadenylation is known to facilitate the degradation of mRNA in Escherichia coli cells. Total RNA extracted from T4-infected cells was subjected to self-circularization or intermolecular ligation by T4 RNA ligase, and a region containing the 3'-5' junction was amplified by RT-PCR. Cloning and sequencing as well as the length distribution of amplified DNA fragments revealed no adenines at the 3'-ends of uvsY and soc RNAs. The present result suggests that T4 mRNA is not significantly adenylated.
Yonesaki
Tetsuro
T
Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan. yonesaki@bio.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp
D017122:Bacteriophage T4 / Q000235:genetics*; D002213:Capsid; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D026723:Polyadenylation / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D036022:Capsid Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C092864:UvsY protein, Enterobacteria phage T4; D014764:Viral Proteins; C103392:small outer capsid protein, bacteriophage T4