Molecular and Biochemical Studies on the DNA Replication of Bacteriophage T7: Functional Analysis of Amino-terminal Region of Gene 2.5 Protein

The product of bacteriophage T7 gene 2.5 is a single-stranded DNA binding protein and plays an important role in T7 DNA replication, recombination, and repair. Genetic analysis of T7 phage defective in gene 2.5 shows that the gene 2.5 protein is essential for T7 DNA replication and growth (Kim and Richardson, 1993). The C-terminal truncated gene 2.5 protein () cannot substitute for wild-type gene 2.5 protein in vivo; suggesting that the C-terminal domain of gene 2.5 protein is essential for protein-protein interactions (Kim and Richardson, 1994; J. Biol. Chem. 269, 5070-5078). Truncated gene 2.5 proteins lacking 19 residues () and 39 residues () from the amino-terminal domain were constructed by in vitro mutagenesis. can support the growth of T7 phage lacking gene 2.5 while cannot substitute for wild-type gene 2.5 protein in vivo; however, its ability to bind to single-stranded DNA is not affected. These results clearly demonstrate that the 20~39 amino-terminal region of gene 2.5 protein is required for T7 growth in vivo but may not be involved in DNA binding activity.