Initiation, release, and reinitiation of RNA chains by bacteriophage-T3-induced polymerase from T3 DNA templates (E. coli-guanosine triphosphate terminus-purified polymerase).

Bacteriophage T3-induced RNA polymerase, upon copying its specific template, native T3 DNA, initiates RNA chains only with GTP. Denaturation of the DNA results in loss of template specificity for the polymerase. With denatured T3 DNA as template, T3 polymerase initiates RNA chains with both ATP and GTP, and the average length of the resulting RNA chains is markedly reduced. Studies of the polymerase reaction with native T3 DNA in vitro show that T3 polymerase is able to terminate RNA synthesis with the release of RNA chains from the template DNA. Polymerase is also released in the process and, acting catalytically, reinitiates new RNA chains. Many moles of RNA chains are thus formed per mole of polymerase added to the reaction mixture.