Bacteriophage T4-coded dihydrofolate reductase: synthesis, turnover, and location of the virion protein

Dihydrofolate reductase plays a dual role in bacteriophage T4, first, as an enzyme of thymidylate metabolism, and second, as a protein component of the tail baseplate. Antibody to the purified enzyme has been used to study its synthesis and intracellular turnover. The antibody specifically precipitates one protein from T4D-infected cell extracts. This has been identified as dihydrofolate reductase, although the polypeptide molecular weight (22,000) is lower than that earlier determined for this enzyme. The protein comigrates on gels with pY, a genetically undefined protein component of the baseplate. However, it is not pY, for pY is synthesized late in infection, whereas virtually no dihydrofolate reductase synthesis occurs later than 10 min after infection at 37 degrees C. Dihydrofolate reductase, once formed, is neither degraded nor converted to proteins of higher or lower molecular weight. Thus, it is probably incorporated into virions at the same molecular weight as that of the soluble enzyme. 125I-radiolabeled antibody binds to the wedge substructure of the baseplate, and this binding is blocked by preincubation with purified T4 dihydrofolate reductase. Thus, the enzyme protein seems to be a component of the wedge.