Function of the tof gene product in modifying chemical stability of trp messenger RNA synthesized from the P L promoter of λtrp phage

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Abstract
The trp operon translocated into the early region of phage λ can be transcribed under the control of two promoters, the authentic trp promoter (P trp trp mRNA) and the P L promoter of the N gene (P L trp mRNA) (Imamoto and Tani, 1972; Ihara and Imamoto, 1976a). P L trp mRNA is stabilized with time after infection: at early times after infection chemical degradation of P L trp mRNA is two-fold slower than for P trp trp mRNA, while at later times the stabilization of P L trp mRNA is markedly reduced when the activity of the tof gene product is low due to a missense mutation of the tof gene. In contrast there is no significant reduction in stabilization when N function is lost by an amber mutation. On the basis of these and other experiments with λtrp susN7 tof12 phage, it is inferred that stabilization of the P L trp mRNA is brought about by a modification of the “decay trigger”, at least in part by the protein product of the tof gene.