Genetic position and amino acid replacements of several mutations in ribosomal protein S5 from Escherichia coli.

The relative genetic position of the following four mutations of ribosomal protein S5 has been determined: spc-13, a mutation to spectinomycin resistance; stri N421 and strid1023, mutations suppressing dependence on streptomycin and sup0-1, a mutation suppressing partially the temperature-sensitive phenotype of an alanyl-tRNA synthetase mutation. The transduction experiments performed indicate that the spc-13 site is located in the S5 cistron proximal to the strA locus, that sup0-1 maps proximal to the aroE gene and that the striN421 and strid1023 loci are located between these two mutational sites. Proteinchemical analysis of the amino acid replacement in protein S5 of strain N421 (carrying the striN421 allele) has shown that an arginine residue is replaced by leucine which results in the appearance of a trypsin intensitive bond between the tryptic peptides T2 and T16. The same alteration has been previously found by Itoh and Wittmann (1973) in the S5 protein of strain d1023. Determination of the alteration of ribosomal protein S5 of strain 0-1 (sup0-1 allele) revealed that the C-terminal tryptic peptide is altered. It differs from that of the wild-type protein by the lack of five amino acids and the appearance of a C-terminal glycine residue instead of a lysine residue. This change can be explained by the deletion of eleven nucleotides in the S5 cistron of strain 0-1. The recent determination of the primary structure of ribosomal protein S5 (Wittmann-Liebold and Greuer, 1975) allows the ordering of the S5 alterations employed: The order is spc-13-strid1023 (striN421)-sup0-1 with the spc-13 amino acid replacement being located at the NH2-terminal portion of the S5 sequence and the alteration of strain 0-1 at the COOH-terminal end. The proteinchemical results are therefore in full agreement with the genetic data and unambiguously allow the conclusion that the S5 cistron is transcribed counterclock-wise on the Escherichia coli chromosome.