Coupling of lac mRNA transcription to translation in Escherichia coli cell extracts

In an extract containing all the components for lac gene expression except washed ribosomes, lac mRNA formation was increased 4- to 6-fold by the addition of washed ribosomes. The formation of beta-galactosidase mRNA and enzyme showed very different dependency on added ribosomes. Enzyme was formed in proportion to the number of ribosomes added, whereas 10% of the standard level of ribosomes promoted full levels of transcription. Consistent with their action in vivo, chloramphenicol and erythromycin blocked the ribosome-dependent lac transcription. The same inhibition was seen with RNA pulse-labeled for 1 or 5 min, so that the effect was truly a blockage of formation rather than an increased hyperlability of nascent mRNA. The effect was specified for some RNA species, as it is in vivo: phage lambda N gene transcription was increased rather than inhibited in the presence of chloramphenicol. Chloramphenicol did not stop lac transcription as a result of its blockage of formation of the regulatory nucleotide tetraphosphate (ppGpp), because addition of the nucleotide did not restore mRNA formation in chloramphenicol-treated extracts. Rather, the data are consistent with the ideas that one or a few ribosomes moving closely behind RNA polymerase can prevent its arrest and that, when ribosome movement is blocked by chloramphenicol, the RNA polymerase is exposed to factors that provoke premature RNA chain termination.