Effect of rifampicin and chloramphenicol on progeny single-stranded DNA synthesis of bacteriophage .PHI.X174.

Abstract

Neither bacteriophage øX174 single-stranded DNA synthesis nor phage growth was affected by rifampicin (200 μg/ml) once it started, whereas a low concentration of chloramphenicol (30 μg/ml) inhibited the phage growth when added in a late phase of infection. When rifampicin was added at a stage where double-stranded duplex (RF) DNA replication proceeded preferentially in the presence of chloramphenicol, or even after chloramphenicol was removed before the addition of rifampicin, both single-stranded DNA synthesis and phage growth were inhibited. These results suggest that RNA synthesis sensitive to rifampicin was necessary to initiate single-stranded DNA synthesis, but no longer needed once ø X 174 DNA synthesis started.