Co-Authors:
Marcus, M., Dept. Genet., Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, Israel
Lavi, U., Dept. Genet., Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, Israel
Nattenberg, A., Dept. Genet., Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract:
Phie is a Bacillus subtilis virulent phage which contains hydroxymethyluracil in its DNA instead of thymine. In phie infected cells, host DNA synthesis is arrested several minutes after infection and phage DNA synthesis begins. The results, based on DNA-DNA hybridization experiments, clearly show that the arrest of host DNA synthesis and the appearance of phage DNA synthesis are manifested faithfully in toluenized preparations of phie infected cells. These results also show that phie DNA synthesis is resistant to the reduced form of the drug 6-(p-hydroxyphenylazo)-uracil, which blocks B. subtilis DNA synthesis by inhibiting the activity of DNA polymerase III.