An inhibitor of SOS induction, specified by a plasmid locus in Escherichia coli

Plasmid R6-5 contains a locus whose product inhibits induction of sfiA and prophage lambda in a recA441 mutant at 42 degrees C and in a recA+ host after treatment with nalidixic acid. This plasmidic SOS-inhibition locus (psi) is situated on an 8.1-kilobase DNA fragment near oriT, the origin of plasmid R6-5 conjugational transfer. Loss of the Psi function, resulting from the insertion of Tn3 into psi+, greatly reduced the synthesis of two proteins, designated PsiA (Mr 24,500) and PsiB (Mr 12,500). Using host cells in which there was an inactive LexA repressor, we found that Psi function does not act by interfering with the expression of the SOS pathway. The Psi function may affect the generation of an SOS signal. We postulate that during the course of evolution, the Psi function has been selected in some conjugative plasmids so as to permit them to transfer single-stranded DNA without generating an SOS signal.