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S A McIntire

Publications and source records attributed to S A McIntire.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Lambda transducing phages derived from a FinO- R100::lambda cointegrate plasmid: proteins encoded by the R100 replication/incompatibility region and the antibiotic resistance determinant.

Three lambda transducing phages have been isolated from pEDR20, an R100::lambda cointegrate plasmid in which the lambda insertion inactivated the R100 finO gene. Physical analysis of the three phages showed that the lambda is inserted at kilobase coordinate 81.3 of R100. All three phages carry different amounts of R100 DNA in the left arm of lambda. Each pahge contains ISlb, the mer genes and the region between coordinate 81.3 and 88.6; thus, all contain the genes necessary for R100 replication. One phage, VA lambda 73, contains the entire r-determination of R100 in addition to the above DNA. Five proteins coded by the region between 81.3 and 88.6 were detected. These had subunit molecular weights of 10,400; 12,200; 16,200; 19,600; and 38,300. The first was made constitutively and the other four only from a lambda promoter. Other constitutive proteins were one from the cml fus region with a molecular weight of 22,400 (cml) and two from the str sul region with molecular weights of 31,500 (str?) and 30,100 (sul?). Mercuric ion induced synthesis of at least 10 proteins. Six of these were known from earlier work. The total size of the proteins which appear to derive from the mer genes exceeds by a factor of 1.5, the coding capacity of this region without overlapping genes. Some, or all of these extra proteins may be chromosomal in origin, possibly derepressed in response to mercury gene products.

Bacteriophage lambda

Properties of lambda transducing bacteriophages carrying R100 plasmid DNA: mercury resistance genes.

Three lambdamer (resistance to Hg2+ and mercurials) transducing phages were prepared from three independent cointegrate isolates of bacteriophage lambda and plasmid R100. DNA heteroduplex and restriction nuclease analyses of the lambdamer DNA showed that all three phages had resulted from lambda insertion at kilobase coordinate 8.6 of plasmid R100, followed by loss of different lengths of lambda DNA and replacement with different lengths of R100 DNA. Two of the lambdamer phages were defective, containing deletions from lambdaatt through the lambdaN gene and into the lambdarex gene; the third, VAlambda14, was an N+ Spi- plaque-forming phage. With VAlambda14, N-dependent transcription of R100 mer from the lambdapL promoter suggested that transcription of mer proceeded in the direction from IS1b toward the sulfonamide resistance determinant (i.e., from a plasmid promoter in restriction nuclease fragment EcoRI-H toward fragment EcoRI-I). Phage-directed protein synthesis in a UV-irradiated lambdaind- lysogen showed the Hg2+-inducible synthesis of three major polypeptides of molecular weights 68,000, 11,500, and 8,500 and three minor ones of molecular weights 54,000, 33,000, and 13,500. The largest of the major polypeptides is identified as the subunit of the mercuric reductase enzyme. The functions of the smaller polypeptides are not known. Hg2+ reductase enzyme assays confirmed the regulation of mer synthesis during phage infection.

Bacterial Proteins