Cloning of the Escherichia coli gene for primosomal protein i: the relationship to dnaT, essential for chromosomal DNA replication.

The Escherichia coli gene encoding one of the primosomal proteins, protein i, was cloned by the use of synthetic oligonucleotide probes. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed a coding region for protein i of 537 base pairs preceded by a possible promoter sequence. The gene is located adjacent to the dnaC locus, probably both being in a single operon. The protein i gene was shown to be closely related to the dnaT locus based on the following observations. (i) A multicopy plasmid carrying only the protein i gene suppresses the temperature-sensitive phenotype of a dnaT strain and restores the ability of the strain to carry out stable DNA replication in the absence of protein synthesis. (ii) An extract from a dnaT strain does not support replication of the plasmid pBR322 in vitro; addition of purified protein i restores its activity. These results indicate that protein i is encoded by dnaT and that it is essential for chromosomal DNA replication and is involved in the induction of stable DNA replication during the SOS response.