The control of ribonucleic acid synthesis in bacteria. Polymerization rates for ribonucleic acids in amino acid-starved relaxed and stringent auxotrophs of Escherichia coli

Polymerization rates of newly formed chains of various RNA fractions were measured in Escherichia coli CP78 (RC^str) and CP79 (RC^rel) multiple amino acid auxotrophs, deprived of four amino acids essential for growth. Immediately after the onset of severe amino acid deprivation, in RC^str strains the rate of labelling of RNA by exogenous nucleotide bases was greatly diminished. At first, the initiation of new RNA chains declined faster than the rate of polymerization in RC^str organisms, but as starvation proceeded the rate of polymerization was eventually lowered to about 10% of that found during normal growth. In strain CP79 (RC^rel), on the other hand, chain-polymerization rates were unaffected by amino acid withdrawal. Artificial depletion of the intracellular purine nucleotide pools in RC^str or RC^rel strains by trimethoprim, before the onset of amino acid deprivation, showed that in the RC^str, but not the RC^rel strain, amino acid withdrawal gave rise to an inability of the cells to utilize exogenously supplied purine or pyrimidine bases for RNA synthesis. During a prolonged starvation, the observed 100-fold decrease in the total rate of incorporation of exogenous nucleotide bases into the RNA of RC^str organisms was ascribed to a combination of a tenfold decrease in the overall rate of RNA chain polymerization, at least a fivefold decrease in the ability of the cells to utilize exogenous bases and a preferential inhibition of initiation of stable RNA chains. None of these changes occurred in the corresponding RC^rel strain.