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J S Wiberg

Publications and source records attributed to J S Wiberg.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Induction of the heat shock regulon of Escherichia coli markedly increases production of bacterial viruses at high temperatures.

Production of bacteriophages T2, T4, and T6 at 42.8 to 44 degrees C was increased from 8- to 260-fold by adapting the Escherichia coli host (grown at 30 degrees C) to growth at the high temperature for 8 min before infection; this increase was abolished if the host htpR (rpoH) gene was inactive. Others have shown that the htpR protein increases or activates the synthesis of at least 17 E. coli heat shock proteins upon raising the growth temperature above a certain level. At 43.8 to 44 degrees C in T4-infected, unadapted cells, the rates of RNA, DNA, and protein synthesis were about 100, 70, and 70%, respectively, of those in T4-infected, adapted cells. Production of the major processed capsid protein, gp23, was reduced significantly more than that of most other T4 proteins in unadapted cells relative to adapted cells. Only 4.6% of the T4 DNA made in unadapted cells was resistant to micrococcal nuclease, versus 50% in adapted cells. Thus, defective maturation of T4 heads appears to explain the failure of phage production in unadapted cells. Overproduction of the heat shock protein GroEL from plasmids restored T4 production in unadapted cells to about 50% of that seen in adapted cells. T4-infected, adapted E. coli B at around 44 degrees C exhibited a partial tryptophan deficiency; this correlated with reduced uptake of uracil that is probably caused by partial induction of stringency. Production of bacteriophage T7 at 44 degrees C was increased two- to fourfold by adapting the host to 44 degrees C before infection; evidence against involvement of the htpR (rpoH) gene is presented. This work and recent work with bacteriophage lambda (C. Waghorne and C.R. Fuerst, Virology 141:51-64, 1985) appear to represent the first demonstrations for any virus that expression of the heat shock regulon of a host is necessary for virus production at high temperature.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1979

regA protein of bacteriophage T4D: identification, schedule of synthesis, and autogenous regulation.

Proteins labeled with 14C-amino acids after infection of Escherichia coli B by T4 phage were examined by electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. Four regA mutants (regA1, regA8, regA11, and regA15) failed to make a protein having a molecular weight of about 12,000, whereas mutant regA9 did make such a protein; regA15 produced a new, apparently smaller protein that was presumably a nonsense fragment, whereas regA11 produced a new, apparently larger protein. We conclude that the 12,000-dalton protein was the product of the regA gene. The molecular weight assignment rested primarily on our finding that the regA protein had the same mobility as the T4 gene 33 protein, which we identified by electrophoresis of whole-cell extracts of E. coli B infected with a gene 33 mutant, amE1120. Synthesis of wild-type regA protein occurred from about 3 to 11 min after infection at 37 degrees C in the DNA+ state and extended to about 20 min in the DNA- state. However, synthesis of the altered regA proteins of regA9, regA11, and regA15 occurred at a higher rate and for a much longer period in both the DNA+ and DNA- states; thus, the regA gene is autogenously regulated. At 30 degrees C, both regA9 and regA11 exhibited partial regA function by eventually shutting off the synthesis of many T4 early proteins; the specificity of this shutoff differed between these two mutants. We also obtained evidence that the regA protein is not Stevens's "polypeptide 3." As a technical point, we found that, when quantitating acid-precipitable radioactivity in protein samples containing sodium dodecyl sulfate, it was necessary to use 15 to 20% trichloroacetic acid; use of 5% acid, e.g., resulted in loss of over half of the labeled protein.

Genes, Regulator↗
PubMed1978

Late effect of bacteriophage T4D on the permeability barrier of Escherichia coli.

Cold centrifugation of lysis-inhibited Escherichia coli B infected with wild-type T4D results in extensive lysis beginning around 20 min after infection at 37 degrees C. Infection with an e mutant, which fails to make lysozyme, prevents lysis, but does not prevent a marked loss of K+ and Mg3+. The t gene product, thought to disrupt the cytoplasmic membrane in natural lysis, is not required for this handling-induced cation loss or lysis. Three lines of evidence argue that late protein synthesis is required to develop this potential for cation loss; the potential does not develop in infections by: (i) mutants defective in DNA synthesis, (ii) mutants defective in gene 55, and (iii) wild-type T4 when chloramphenicol is added at 6 min after infection. All late mutants examined, which are blocked in the major pathways of morphogenesis, do not prevent development of the potential. The evidence argues for a new, late effect of T4 infection on the cytoplasmic membrane.

Cell Membrane Permeability↗
PubMed1977

Genetic mapping of regA mutants of bacteriophage T4D.

SP62, a mutant of bacteriophage T4 shown by Wiberg et al. (1973) to be defective in regulation of T4 protein synthesis, was shown by complementation tests to define a new gene, regA, and by intergenic mapping to lie between genes 43 and 62. The mapping involved crossing SP62 with a quadruple amber mutant defective in genes 42, 43, 62, and 44, selecting all six classes of amber-containing recombinants caused by single crossover events, and then scoring the presence or absence of SP62 in these recombinants. In addition, 15 new, spontaneous regA mutants were isolated, and 13 of these were mapped against each other; a total of eight different mutation sites were thus defined. Most of the new mutants were isolated as pseudorevertants of a leaky amber mutant in gene 62, according to Karam and Bowles (1974), whereas one was identified by virtue of the "white ring" around its plaque, a phenotype possessed by all the regA mutants at high temperature, SP62 was renamed regA1, and the new mutants were named regA2, regA3, etc.

Chromosome Mapping↗
PubMed1975

das Mutation in bacteriophage T4D does not suppress an amber mutation in T4 gene 59.

Mutations termed das were isolated originally (Hercules and Wiberg, 1971) as partial suppressors of mutants in phage T4 genes 46 and 47. Since mutants in genes 46, 47, and 59 exhibit both an early arrest of phage DNA synthesis and the loss of this arrest in the presence of chloramphenicol or of mutations of T4 genes 33 and 55, we asked whether a das mutation can also suppress a gene 59 mutant. We find that it cannot--either at the level of phage production or DNA synthesis.

Chloramphenicol↗
PubMed1973

SP62, a viable mutant of bacteriophage T4D defective in regulation of phage enzyme synthesis.

SP62 is a mutant of bacteriophage T4D that was discovered because it produces fewer phage than the wild type in the presence of 5-fluorodeoxyuridine. In the absence of phage DNA synthesis, SP62 solubilizes host DNA slower than normal; this may explain the sensitivity to 5-fluorodeoxyuridine. In Escherichia coli B at 37 C in the absence of drugs, SP62 makes DNA at a normal rate and the kinetics of appearance of phage are nearly normal. Under the same conditions, SP62 produces T4 lysozyme (gene e) at a normal rate until 20 min, but then produces it at twice the normal rate until at least 60 min. It has long been known that, when T4 DNA synthesis is blocked (DNA(-) state) in an otherwise normal infection, the synthesis of a number of early enzymes continues beyond the shutoff time of about 12 min seen in the DNA(+) state, but still stops at about 20 min. We have termed the 12-min shutoff event S1 and the 20-min shutoff event S2. We show here that, in the DNA(+) state, SP62 makes four early enzymes normally, i.e., S1 occurs. However, in the DNA(-) state (where S1 is missing), SP62 continues to make dCTPase (gene 56), dCMP hydroxymethylase (gene 42), and deoxynucleotide kinase (gene 1) for at least an hour; this results in production of up to 13 times the normal level of dCTPase at 60 min after infection, or 6 times the DNA(-) level. We conclude that SP62 is defective in the second shutoff mechanism, S2, for these three enzymes. In contrast, SP62 causes premature cessation of dTMP synthetase production in the DNA(-) state; the result is a twofold underproduction of dTMP synthetase. Autoradiograms of pulse-labeled proteins separated by slab-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate show that a number of other T4 early proteins, including the products of genes 45, 46, and rIIA, are synthesized longer than normal by SP62 in the DNA(-) state. Few late proteins are made in the DNA(-) state, but in autoradiograms examining the DNA(+) state there is little or no effect of the SP62 mutation on the synthesis of T4 late or early proteins. Circumstantial evidence is presented favoring a role for the gene of SP62 in translation of certain mRNAs. At very high temperatures (above 43 C) in the absence of drugs, phage production, but not DNA synthesis, is much reduced in SP62 infections relative to wild-type T4 infections; this temperature sensitivity is greater on E. coli CR63 than on E. coli B. This property has facilitated recognition of the SP62 genotype and aided in complementation testing and genetic mapping. A later publication will provide evidence that SP62 defines a new T4 gene named regA, which maps between genes 43 and 62.

Coliphages↗
PubMed1969

Biological effects of substituting cytosine for 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the deoxyribonucleic acid of bacteriophage T4.

Previous work from this laboratory has shown that the cytosine-containing T4 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) made by deoxycytidine triphosphatase (dCTPase) amber mutants is extensively degraded, and that nucleases controlled by genes 46 and 47 participate in this process. In this paper, we examine other consequences of a defective dCTPase. Included are studies of DNA synthesis and phage production, and of the control of both early and late protein synthesis after infection of Escherichia coli B with various T4 mutants defective in genes 56 (dCTPase), 42 (dCMP hydroxymethylase), 1 (deoxynucleotide kinase), 43 (DNA polymerase), 30 (polynucleotide ligase), 46 and 47 (DNA breakdown) or e(lysozyme). By varying the temperature of infection with a temperature-sensitive dCTPase mutant, we have been able to control intracellular dCTPase activity, and thus vary the cytosine content of the phage DNA. We have produced and characterized viable T4 phage in which cytosine replaces 20% of the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (HMC) in the DNA. We present evidence which suggests that intact, cytosine-containing T4 DNA is much less efficient than is normal T4 DNA in directing the synthesis of tail-fiber antigen. Lysozyme production is much less affected by progressively decreasing dCTPase activity; however, complete substitution of cytosine is correlated with a depression of lysozyme synthesis greater than expected from the defective synthesis of DNA. Low but significant lysozyme synthesis is observed late after infection of E. coli B with T4 amber mutants defective in a number of genes controlling DNA synthesis. The "20% cytosine" T4 phage, once produced, can initiate an apparently normal infection at permissive temperatures; the synthesis of early enzymes, DNA, and phage does not appear to be impaired. Two roles for HMC in T4 DNA have been indicated previously: (i) involvement in host-controlled restriction of the phage, in which glucosylation of the hydroxymethyl group plays a crucial role (16, 29, 53, 58), and (ii) protection of vegetative DNA against phage-controlled nucleases, a protection not dependent on glucosylation (41, 66, 67). A third role is suggested by our present results: transcription of at least some late genes can occur only from HMC-containing DNA and not from cytosine-containing DNA.

Bacteriophages↗