Bacteriophage nucleic acids

Martel, B. and Moineau, S. (2014) CRISPR-Cas an efficient tool for genome engineering of virulent bacteriophages. Nucleic Acids Res 42, 9504—9513. 

Nucleoproieins. The prosthetic group of the nucleoproteins is nucleic acid, often linked through salt linkages with protamines or histones. The nucleoproteins are present in the nuclei of all cells. Chromasomes are largely nucleoproteins and some plant viruses and bacteriophages have been shown to be pure nucleoproteins. See also histones. 

A standard curve is defined by light emission from the standards containing known concentrations of recombinant bacteriophage. A quadratic equation is used to fit the curve to the RLU of the four standards. A maximum of two points from different standards may be eliminated by the data management software in order to achieve the best curve fit. The concentration of the target nucleic acid in the sample is determined from this standard curve. An example of the output from the data management software for the second-generation HCV assay is shown in Fig. 6. 

For various reasons, the generalizations mentioned above must be regarded as strictly provisional. Analyses utilizing formic acid indicate the presence of more than one phosphorus atom per purine or pyrimidine residue. This discrepancy, it is pointed out, could equally well result from an apparent deficiency of bases, due to error in the analytical technique.160 It is also necessary to consider that some nucleic acids are now known to contain more bases than was previously realized. Thus, 5-(hydroxymethyl)-cytosine is present in various viruses,181-182 and 5-methylcytosine occurs in various animal and plant deoxyribonucleic acids but is absent from those of microbial origin.17-160-1M- 184- 186 Certain microbial deoxyribonucleic acids also contain 6-methylaminopurine.186a Various bacteriophage deoxyribonucleic acids have been found to contain a component which is believed to consist of a D-glucoside186b of 5 -(hydroxymethyl)cytidylic acid. 

Sequencing.—With the elucidation of the primary and secondary structure of the replicase gene, the complete 3569-nucleotide-long sequence of the RNA of bacteriophage MS2 is now known.153 This is the first organism for which theentire nucleic acid structure has been elucidated, and Fiers and his group richly deserve their bouquet. 

Staudt LM, Brown PO. Genomic views of the immune system. Annu Rev Immunol 2000 18 829-859. Grigoriev A. A relationship between gene expression and protein interactions on the proteome scale analysis of the bacteriophage T7 and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Res 2001 29 3513-3519. 

NUCLEOPROTEINS AND NUCLEIC ACIDS. Nucleic adds are compounds in which phosphoric acid is combined with carbohydrates and with bases derived from purine and pyrimidine. Nucleoproteins are conjugated proteins consisting of a protein moiety and a nucleic acid. Originally, nucleoproteins were thought to occur only in the nuclei of cells, but it was later established that they are far more widely distributed, being found in cells of all types, animal and plant. They are found in the chromosomes, in the genes, in viruses, and bacteriophages. 

Bacteriophage, a virus infecting bacterial cells, has a structure somewhat different from those previously described. A head contains the nucleic acid and the viral DNA passes through a tail during the infection process. In the T-even phages (Fig. 1), the tad consists of a tube surrounded by a sheath and is connected to a thin collar al the head end and a plate at the tip end. The sheath is capable of contraction and the plate possesses pins and tail fibers, which are the organs of attachment of the bacteriophage to the. wall of the host cell. 

Hershey, A. D., and M. Chase, Independent functions of viral proteins and nucleic acid in growth of bacteriophage. 

Ginoza, W. (1967). The effects of ionizing radiation on nucleic acids of bacteriophages and bacterial cells. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 21,325-368. 

Walsh (2003) defined biopharmaceuticals as therapeutic protein or nucleic acid preparations made by techniques involving recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology. Therapeutic proteins include blood clotting factors and plasminogen activators, hemopoietic factors, hormones, interferons and interleukins, and monoclonal antibodies (LeVine, 2006). Over time, the term biopharmaceutical has broadened, and, in addition to proteins and nucleic acids, now includes bacteriophages, viral and bacterial vaccines, vectors for gene therapy, and cells for cell therapy (Primrose and Twyman, 2004). Attention here focuses on proteins, since the majority of approved biopharmaceuticals are proteins. 

Schreier, P.H. and R. Cortese, 1979. A fast and simple method for sequencing DNA cloned in the single-stranded bacteriophage M13. J. Mol. Biol. 129, 169. Winter. G. and S. Fields, 1980. Cloning of influenza cDNA into M13 the sequence of the RNA segment encoding the A/PR/8/34 matrix protein. Nucleic Acids Res. 8, 1965. 

As already noted, templated sequencing protocols are now the most generally used methods for nucleic acid sequence determination. The use of the highly processive modified bacteriophage T7 polymerase (Sequen-ase U.S. Biochemical Corp., Cleveland, OH) has eliminated many earlier problems associated with variable intensity of individual bands on sequencing gels. 

Short JM, Fernandez JM, Sorge JA, Huse WD Lambda ZAP A bacteriophage lambda expression vector with in vivo excision properties. Nucleic Acids Res 1988 16 7583-7600. 

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