Abstract
Of all the morphogenic genes of the coliphage λ, only Nu1 and A are both necessary and sufficient for terminase activity in vitro. Previously we have reported that extracts of Nu1 −- and Aam −-infected cells will not complement each other to promote packaging in an in vitro assay (A. Becker, H. Murialdo, and M. Gold, Virology, 78, 277–290, 1977). We report here that such complementation is possible under certain conditions; furthermore, complementation appears to proceed in a noncatalytic fashion. The product of gene Nu1 (gpNu1) therefore does not appear to be involved in the synthesis of the product of gene A (gpA). We discuss the hypothesis that λ terminase is a heterodimer consisting of gpNu1 and gpA subunits, and show that neither of these subunits alone is able to promote either the DNA-cutting or prohead-filling events of packaging.
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