Nucleotide sequence of the immunity region of bacteriophage Mu.

The leftmost 1590 bp of Mu DNA covering the immunity region have been sequenced. This region encodes the cI repressor, the cII or ner function and the beginning of gene A. An open reading frame extends from position 863 to 342 on the l-strand corresponding to cI protein with a molecular weight of 19212. It is preceded by a sequence resembling a promoter. To the right of the HindIII site an open reading frame extends from position 1099 to 1323 corresponding to cII or ner protein (molecular weight of 8505) followed by the beginning of gene A at position 1328. Between position 863 and 1099 promoters for leftward and rightward transcription and operator-like structures can be recognized in the sequence. The promoter for rightward transcription overlaps with the HindIII site and coincides with a RNA polymerase binding site as demonstrated by electron microscopy.