The requirement of nonsense suppression for the development of several phages

Abstract

A spontaneous streptomycin-resistant Escherichia coli mutant which is temperature-sensitive for suppression of a nonsense codon was studied for its ability to propagate phages T2, T4D, T5, ϕK, f2, MS2, R17, Qβ, λ as well as filamentous phages fl, fd and M13. Of all phages tested, only the growth of Qβ, λ, and filamentous phages is inhibited in the mutant at 42° C. This selective inhibition suggests that, like Qβ, λ and filamentous phages also require a read-through protein(s) which results from suppression of a termination codon.