Expression of cloned bacteriophage T4 uvsW and uvsY genes in rec+ and rec- Escherichia coli

Abstract

Chimeric plasmids containing the uvsY uvsW region of the T4 genome were examined for the expression of these genes. Certain of these plasmids were shown to express the uvsY or the uvsW gene products by their ability to complement the UV sensitivity of infecting uvsW or uvsY mutant phage. Also, a chimeric plasmid containing both the uvsW and uvsY genes increases the survival of UV-irradiated, methyl methane sulfonate- or ethyl methane sulfonate-treated recA hosts.