Transcription of Bacteriophage T4 Genome In Vivo

Abstract

Transcription of bacteriophage T4 genome has been studied extensively in vivo (Bolle et al., 1968a, 1968b; Salser et al., 1970) and in vitro (Travers, 1970). These studies utilized RNA-DNA hybridization and hybridization competition techniques to characterize various classes of RNA. Such techniques are useful in distinguishing between classes of RNA, for example, early and late phage RNA, but cannot distinguish individual messenger RNAs (mRNAs) synthesized in vivo or in vitro. We have recently developed a general method which enables us to study the transcription of individual genes of phage T4 (Jayaraman and Goldberg, 1969).