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We have developed an in vitrocomplementation assay for six T4 bacteriophage gene products believed to be components of the T4 DNA replication apparatus. This assay is based upon the fact that DNA synthesis in an infected cell lysate that lacks a given gene product is specifically stimulated by addition of the missing product. By the use of such an assay, two proteins that appear to be the products of T4 genes 44 and 62 have been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity as a single complex of the two polypeptide chains.

Early events in the action of 17-β-estradiol can be studied in soluble extracts of rat uterus by exposure of the estradiol-receptor protein to a DNA-cellulose matrix. After complexing with [3H]estradiol, the 4S receptor protein binds to the DNA, and it can be eluted with buffer of high ionic strength as a more tightly binding, 5S form. This parallels the in vivosituation, where migration of the receptor to the nucleus follows addition of hormone and is concomitant with a similar increase in sedimentation rate to 5 S. In both cases, the formation of a 5S receptor requires the presence of 17-β-estradiol. The rate at which 5S receptor forms is sensitive to extract concentration in a way that suggests that this receptor is a complex created by addition of a second subunit to the hormone-binding 4S component; physical studies on both in vivoand in vitro5S receptors also support this view. These results are interpreted in terms of a model for action of estrogen in which the hormone potentiates binding of receptor to DNA, and in turn, the DNA-binding process triggers the cell response.

A DNA-unwinding protein has been purified to homogeneity from E. coli. This protein has a molecular weight of about 22,000, as judged by its electrophoretic mobility on polyacrylamide gels containing sodium dodecylsulfate, and it appears to be present in about 800 copies per log-phase cell. It binds tightly and cooperatively to single-stranded DNA, and much less tightly, if at all, to RNA or double-stranded DNA.Like the T4 gene-32 protein characterized previously, the E. coliDNA-unwinding protein depresses the melting temperature of double-stranded DNAs, with regions rich in A-T base-pairs being preferentially melted. The E. coliprotein strongly stimulates in vitroDNA synthesis by E. coliDNA polymerase II on appropriate templates; however, no stimulation is found with purified polymerases I or III of E. coli, or with T4 DNA polymerase. In contrast, gene-32 protein stimulates only the T4 DNA polymerase in a parallel assay.