Post-transcriptional regulation of the bacteriophage Mu mom gene by the com gene product

Abstract

The mom gene of bacteriophage Mu encodes a DNA modification function, the expression of which is detrimental to the host cell. This may be reflected by the tight regulation of the mom gene at the level of transcription initiation by the Mu C gene product and the host Dam function. In addition, mom expression requires the positive regulatory function Com. The com and mom genes comprise the mom operon with the com coding region partially overlapping that of mom. The degree of overlap is defined by experiments reported here. We have tested Com for activity as an antiterminator of mom transcription. We show that in the absence of Com, premature termination affects at most 33% of the transcription across the mom operon. Although no premature termination is observed in the presence of Com, these results are inconsistent with a role for Com as an antiterminator. Northern blot analysis of Com + and Com − Mu phage mRNA confirms this conclusion. Two models for the post-transcriptional regulation of mom gene expression by Com are presented.