Bacteriophage T4 DNA primase-helicase. Characterization of oligomer synthesis by T4 61 protein alone and in conjunction with T4 41 protein.

The bacteriophage T4 41 and 61 proteins function as a primase-helicase which in vitro both unwinds double-stranded DNA and synthesizes the pentaribonucleotides used to initiate DNA synthesis on the lagging strand. We demonstrate that 61 protein alone possesses a weak DNA template-dependent oligomer synthesizing activity, whose products differ in size and nucleotide specificity from those made by the 61 and 41 proteins together. We have previously shown that the 61 and 41 proteins make primarily ribonucleotide pentamers of the sequence pppApC(pN)3, although some pentamers beginning with G were also detected on phi X174 single-stranded DNA. The pentamers pppApC(pN)3 have also been shown to initiate T4 DNA chains in vivo (Kurosawa, Y., and Okazaki, T. (1979) J. Mol. Biol. 135, 841-861). We now show that in contrast, the major products made by 61 protein alone on phi X174 DNA with [alpha-32P]CTP and the other three ribonucleoside triphosphates are not pentamers, but the dimers pppApC and pppGpC. In addition, minor amounts of products from 3 to approximately 45 nucleotides in length are also synthesized. Unlike the 61/41 protein reaction, 61 protein alone can substitute dATP or dGTP for ATP or GTP. Addition of 41 protein greatly stimulates oligomer synthesis, especially the synthesis of products made with ATP and CTP and products 5 nucleotides in length. Thus, both 61 and 41 proteins are needed to obtain efficient synthesis of the biologically relevant pentamers pppApC(pN)3. We demonstrate that the glucosylated hydroxymethylcytosines present in T4 DNA do not support the initiation of primer synthesis by the 61 protein on this template. With glycosylated hydroxymethyl T4 DNA, pppApC but not pppGpC oligomers are detected. If the T4 DNA is modified by hydroxymethylation but not glucosylation, pppApC and only a trace of pppGpC products are seen. In the accompanying paper (Nossal, N.G., and Hinton, D.M. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 10879-10885), we examine DNA synthesis primed by 61 protein in the absence of 41 protein.