Control of initiation of pMB1 replication: Purified rop protein and RNA I affect primer formation in vitro

We show that a protein of 63 amino acids is the product of the rop gene, a gene which negatively regulates the copy number of plasmids of the CoIE1 family. Rop protein purified to homogeneity inhibits CoIE1 plasmid replication in a bacterial extract. Furthermore, we show that Rop inhibition requires RNA I. In a purified in vitro system that can support primer transcription and processing, Rop affects primer formation in two ways: first, it elicits transcription termination at nucleotide 220, and second, it increases the ability of RNA I to inhibit RNAase H processing of the primer. The analysis of these data and the comparison with the results obtained in vivo with transcription fusion experiments allow us to propose a tentative model of the molecular mechanism underlying Rop-RNA I inhibition.