A lytic enzyme in the bacteriophage phi 6 virion

The results of our biochemical studies on the early step of phi 6 infection were schematically summarized in Fig. 6. To our knowledge, no other bacteriophage was reported to synthesize its mRNA in the parental subviral particle. The unique feature of the life cycle of this phage seems to be supported by two enzymes associated with the virion; the lytic enzyme and the RNA polymerase. The study of the RNA polymerase reaction observed in vitro showed the mode of the phi 6 RNA synthesis clearly and seems to be very useful to know the mechanism of the initial viral RNA synthesis in vivo.