Proteins induced in Bacillus subtilis infected with bacteriophage ø29

Abstract

Bacteriophage φ29 induces, in UV-irradiated B. subtilis, the synthesis of 12 non-structural proteins as well as the 7 structural polypeptides which form the viral particle. The molecular weight of the nonstructural polypeptides amounts to 180,000 daltons; if all these proteins are phage-coded, this corresponds to about 30% of the information content of φ29 DNA. The phage-induced polypeptides can be classified as early and late proteins, according with the time of their appearance after infection. All the structural proteins as well as three nonstructural proteins are late proteins. The remaining nonstructural proteins appear early after infection.