Restriction insensitivity in bacteriophage T5 I. Genetic characterization of mutants sensitive to EcoRI restriction

Unmodified bacteriophage T5 is able to grow normally on bacterial hosts carrying three different Escherichia coli restriction systems, EcoK, EcoPI, and EcoRI. Under the same conditions, the plating efficiency of bacteriophage gamma is less than 10(-9). At least in the case of EcoRI, this lack of in vivo restriction is not due to lack of restriction sites on the T5 DNA molecule. These observations suggest that bacteriophage T5 specifies one or more restriction protection systems. Mutants (ris) of T5 have been isolated which confer sensitivity to EcoRI restriction but not to EcoK or EcoPI. The mutations are located in the pre-early region of the genetic map but are too far apart to be alleles of a single gene. Complementation studies show that the ris mutants can be helped to grow on the EcoRI-restricting host by coinfection with T5+. This result provides evidence for a restriction protection function but does not necessarily show that the ris mutants are defective in such a system.