Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R H Benzinger.
We demonstrated the genetic transformation of Rhizobium leguminosarum by R68.45 plasmid DNA by freezing and thawing cell suspensions in the presence of R68.45 plasmid DNA and 20 mM MgCl2. Clones resistant to kanamycin and tetracycline were recovered at a frequency of 10(-8) per recipient cell. No colonies that were doubly drug resistant were recovered in parallel control experiments.
We disrupted bacteriophage Mu particles by freeze-thaw treatment and recovered the DNA by CsCl density gradient centrifugation. This CsCl-purified DNA had a buoyant density which was indistinguishable from that of phenol-extracted Mu DNA. It was, however, 10(3) times more infective than phenol-extracted DNA for spheroplasts of exoV endI Escherichia coli. Infectivity was destroyed by proteinase K as well as by pancreatic DNase, indicating that the infective form was a DNA-protein complex. The infective properties of the complex demonstrated that the protein protects. Mu DNA against degradation by exonuclease V and that it serves at least one other function in bacteriophage Mu infection. The infectivity of the CsCl-purified DNA was due to a small class of highly infective molecules which sedimented 1.2. times faster than phenol-extracted Mu DNA on neutral sucrose gradients. This change in sedimentation rate is best explained by the formation of protein-linked circular monomers or linear dimers of Mu DNA. In vitro labeling of the DNA-protein complex, followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, showed that the CsCl-purified DNA contained a noncovalently associated 65,000-dalton polypeptide. A 65,000-dalton protein was also found to be a minor component of the bacteriophage Mu particle. No protein was found in phenol-extracted Mu DNA. These results suggest that the 65,000-dalton protein is necessary for successful phage infection and is normally injected into the host cell with the Mu genome.
Second-step transfer of bacteriophage T5 DNA requires the function of the T5 pre-early proteins A1 and A2. We have isolated and characterized the gene A2 protein as part of an effort to determine the mechanism of second-step transfer. The A2 protein was purified by DNA-cellulose column chromatography followed by gel filtration and ion-exchange column chromatography. The A2 protein's identity was confirmed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and thin-layer gel filtration in 6 M guanidine hydrochloride demonstrated a molecular weight of 15,000 for the A2 polypeptide. Migration of the A2 protein through gel filtration columns under nondenaturing conditions, in combination with sedimentation behavior, indicated dimerization of the A2 polypeptide. The existence of the A2 dimer was confirmed by protein cross-linking with dimethyl suberimidate and analysis of the cross-linked proteins by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The amino acid composition, degree of polymerization, DNA-binding ability, and physical characteristics of the T5 gene A2 protein are consistent with a function of the A2 protein in DNA transfer.
Wild-type and gene 3 mutant filamentous phage stocks, containing different relative amounts of multiple-length particles, were treated exhaustively with DNase and then were highly purified. The phage DNA was extracted and examined by electron microscopy. In all cases, about 0.03% of the molecules were circular dimers. (3)H-labeled phage DNA was separated as to size by sedimentation in a preformed CsCl density gradient. Individual fractions were then examined in the electron microscope, and the percentage of linear and circular monomer and dimer DNAs was determined. A peak of double-length, circular molecules (with the expected sedimentation constant of 38S) was found ahead of the 24S monomer peak. The double-length molecules had been purified 65-fold. As previously found for single-stranded DNA, the contour length of these molecules was strongly dependent upon ionic strength. Possible artifacts were ruled out, and it was shown that the double-length molecules arose from phage particles.