Intron-containing T4 bacteriophage gene sunY encodes an anaerobic ribonucleotide reductase

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry Vol. 269; no. 32; pp. 20229 - 20232
• Main Authors: YOUNG, P, ÖHMAN, M, XU, M. Q, SHUB, D. A, SJÖBERG, B.-M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 12-08-1994
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Bacteriophage T4 - genetics; Biological and medical sciences; Enzymes and enzyme inhibitors; Escherichia coli; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes. Genome; Introns; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Oxidoreductases; phage T4; Ribonucleotide Reductases - biosynthesis; Ribonucleotide Reductases - genetics; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Enzyme; Inactivation; Myoviridae; Biological activity; Virus; T even phage; Gene; Enzymatic activity; Intron; Ribonucleoside-triphosphate reductase; Anaerobe; Oxidoreductases; Phage; Phage T4
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9258(17)31980-4

The function of the SunY protein, encoded by an intron-containing gene of bacteriophage T4, has remained hitherto unknown
in contrast to the extensively studied self-splicing reaction of the SunY intron. Here we show that anaerobic T4 infections
of Escherichia coli induce a ribonucleoside triphosphate reductase activity that is 10-30-fold higher than the bacterial host
level of the corresponding enzyme. Inactivation of the T4 sunY gene (in this communication renamed nrdD) significantly decreased
both the induced activity and the anaerobic production of phage, confirming the role of the T4 NrdD (SunY) protein as a phage-specific
anaerobic ribonucleotide reductase. With the identification of the T4 nrdD (sunY) gene product as an anaerobic ribonucleotide
reductase, all known bacteriophage introns are found to share the common and as yet unexplained property of residing within
genes of DNA metabolism.