Presence of active polyribosomes in bacterial cells infected with T4 bacteriophage ghosts

Abstract

Host protein synthesis of Escherichia coli stops abruptly after T4 bacteriophage ghost infection. When infection was carried out in the presence of 10 mM Mg2plus, infected cells still have active polyribosomes despite the complete stoppage of protein synthesis. On the other hand, when T4 ghost infection was carried out in the presence of 1 mM Mg2plus, no polyribosomes were observed and most of the ribosomes were 30S and 50S subunit particles. Subunits obtained from extracts of ghost-infected cells at 1 mM M'G2++ concentration could not be converted to polyribosomes, even when Mg2plus concentration was adjusted to 10 mM after ghost infection. There was very little difference in amino acid incorporation activities between polyribosomes from ghost-infected and uninfected cells. In addition, the activity of 70S ribosomes isolated from uninfected cells was identical to that from cells infected with ghosts at 10 mM Mg2plus.