Studies on the deoxyribonucleases of bacteriophage-infected Escherichia coli

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Abstract
The high deoxyribonuclease (DNA-ase) activity in extracts from E. coli infected with phages T2, T5 or T6 is due to synthesis of one or more enzymes after infection. The increase was greatest when (DNA-ase) activity was measured at about pH 9 with heat-denatured deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as substrate. The (DNA-ase) activity after infection with T2 was markedly more sensitive to inhibition by 30 [mu]M-p-chloromercuribenzoate than that before or that after infection with T5. The increase of (DNA-ase) activity did not start until most of the bacterial DNA had been degraded to acid-soluble material in T5-infected cultures. The increase occurred at about the same time as the increase of the activity responsible for the phosphorylation of thymidylate.