Viruses 2013, 5, 619-653; doi:10.3390/v5020619 OPEN ACCESS viruses ISSN 1999-4915 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses Article Phage Lambda P Protein: Trans-Activation, Inhibition Phenotypes and their Suppression Sidney Hayes *, Craig Erker, Monique A. Horbay, Kristen Marciniuk, Wen Wang and Connie Hayes Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, S7N 5E5 Canada; E-Mails:
[email protected] (S.H.);
[email protected] (C.E.);
[email protected] (M.A.H.);
[email protected] (K.M.);
[email protected] (W.W.);
[email protected] (C.H.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed;
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-306-966-4307; Fax: +1-306-966-4298. Received: 4 December 2012; in revised form: 21 January 2013 / Accepted: 29 January 2013 / Published: 6 February 2013 Abstract: The initiation of bacteriophage λ replication depends upon interactions between the oriλ DNA site, phage proteins O and P, and E. coli host replication proteins. P exhibits a high affinity for DnaB, the major replicative helicase for unwinding double stranded DNA. The concept of P-lethality relates to the hypothesis that P can sequester DnaB and in turn prevent cellular replication initiation from oriC. Alternatively, it was suggested that P-lethality does not involve an interaction between P and DnaB, but is targeted to DnaA. P-lethality is assessed by examining host cells for transformation by ColE1-type plasmids that can express P, and the absence of transformants is attributed to a lethal effect of P expression. The plasmid we employed enabled conditional expression of P, where under permissive conditions, cells were efficiently transformed.