The role of the OOP antisense RNA in coliphage lambda development

Abstract

We have made a derivative of bacteriophage lambda that makes no OOP antisense RNA. The mutant phage carries a point mutation that inactivates the OOP promoter, po. The phages lambda + and lambda po- have identical plaque morphologies, one-step growth curves, and frequencies of lysogenization of a sensitive host. OOP RNA synthesis is weakly repressed by the Escherichia coli LexA protein. Consonant with this inducibility of OOP RNA synthesis by ultraviolet light, we find a two-fold greater phage burst following ultraviolet induction of a lambda + than of a lambda po- prophage. In lambda + infections, OOP RNA causes two cleavage events in cll mRNA: one is in the 3'-end of the coding region, and the second is in the intercistronic region between the cll and O genes. The cll gene fragments are subject to additional hydrolytic events, and cll mRNA levels are several-fold lower in lambda + than in lambda po- infections late in the infection cycle. However, O mRNA levels are almost unaffected by the po- mutation.