Identification of the dnaA and dnaN gene products of Escherichia coli.

A specialized transducing lambda phage carrying the dnaN genes of Escherichia coli specifies two proteins of about 41 and 48 kilodaltons (kd). The temperature-sensitive mutations, dnaN59 and dnaA167, were found to result in altered isoelectric points of the 41 and 48 kd proteins, respectively. Thus the dnaN gene product was identified as a weakly acidic 41 and 48 kd protein. The synthesis of the dnaN gene product is greatly reduced by insertion of a transposon Tn3 in the dnaA gene and by deletion in the gene at the distal end to the dnaN gene. Temperature-sensitive dnaA mutations, on the dnaN gene product. These results indicate that the synthesis of the dnaN gene product is dependent on the structural integrity of the dnaA gene.