Question

Alex has just isolated a novel bacteriophage, EC2124, against E. coli. He found that EC2124 gave low burst size of 5 when incubated with host bacteria at 37°C. However, burst size of 55 was obtained when it was incubated with host bacteria at 42°C. Discuss the transcription mechanism of bacteriophage in E. coli host and give a possible explanation for this phenomenon.

Answer 1

The phage use different types of mechanism for the transcription of bacteriophage in E.Coli host. In this, phenomenon hr observed that at high temperature of 42°C, the burst size was 55 whereas at low temperature of 37°C, the burst size gradually decreased to 5 in the case of novel bacteriophage, EC2124, against E. coli. The gene transcription regulation of phase takes place by transcriptional anti-termination. It consider two separate mechanisms to regulate early and late transcripts in the phase. The expression of the genes in the phase is mediated by the Q protein which is a type of anti-termination protein converting the host RNAPin to the termination resistant from. The temperature holds a major part in this process and that is why this phenomenon occured in the transcription mechanism of bacteriophage in E.coli host.