Mapping and complementation studies of the gene for release factor 1

Abstract

In Escherichia coli the release factor 1 protein (RF1) recognizes and terminates translation at UAG and UAA codons. Using the technique of ColE1 plasmid integration in polA strains, we have mapped the cloned gene for RF1 to 27 min on the E. coli chromosome. This is the same location as that of the uar gene in which temperature-sensitive mutations increase the suppression of UAG and UAA alleles. In this study we proved that the uar mutation lies in the gene for RF1 by (i) complementation of the uar phenotype with plasmids carrying the RF1 gene and by (ii) cloning the uar allele onto the RF1 plasmid by means of homologous recombination. In addition, complementation and P1 mapping data suggest that sueB is also a mutation in the same position as the RF1 gene. We propose that the gene for RF1 be named prfA after protein release factor.