Abstract
IT has recently been reported that rifampicin-sensitive RNA synthesis participates in the replication of bacterial1,2, episome or plasmid3–8 and phage7–11 DNA, presumably in a primer role during initiation. A more complex model of DNA replication may, however, be provided by the development of coliphage N4 (ref. 12). Transcription of N4 chromosome is unusual in that the virus uses two new rifampicin-resistant polymerising activities13. Expression of the early and delayed-early genes is therefore unaffected in rifampicin-pretreated cells although infection is abortive since transcription of the late N4 genes requires the functioning of the rifampicin-sensitive Escherichia coli RNA-polymerase (ref. 14). Here we show that initiation and continuation of N4 DNA replication take place in conditions in which the host RNA polymerase is totally inactive and give an account of the nature of the products that are synthesised in rifampicin-pretreated cells.
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SCHITO, G., GIRALDI, M. & TONI, M. Rifampicin-resistant replication of coliphage N4 DNA. Nature 251, 340–342 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/251340a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/251340a0
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