Incorporation of thymine-containing DNA precursors in plasmolysed cells infected by the T4 non-lethal recombination defective mutants.

Incorporation of TdR is aberrant in cells plasmolysed 15 min after infection by the recombination defective t4 chi and omega mutants. The in situ results parallel those obtained in vivo: at high TdR concentrations both T4 chi and T4 omega induced incorporation is slightly reduced compared to wild type, whereas at low TdR concentration incorporation induced by T4 chi is reduced and that induced by T4 omega is increased compared to wild type. No differences between wild type and mutant induced TdR incorporation are observed when cells are plasmolysed 8 min after infection. Further, no difference in incorporation between wild type and T4 chi or T4 omega is observed when either 3H thymine or 3H dTTP is used as a substrate, however small incorporation differences are observed using 3H dTMP as substrate. The mitomycin C sensitivity of T4 chi induced TdR incorporation is also observed in situ, but the drug must be present throughout infection. T4tk omega mutants have increased ability to incorporate 1 microM 3H TdR compared to T4tk and the reduced incorporation of 1 microM 3H TdR by T4 chi is suppressed in a T4td chi double mutant. These data are compatible with the hypothesis that endogenously produced TdR modulates leading and lagging strand synthesis and that the aberrant 1 microM TdR incorporation exhibited by T4 chi and T4 omega reflects specific activity changes resulting from a recombination defect induced alteration of the TdR "modulator pool".