BACKGROUND: Replication of a plasmid derived from the Escherichia coli phage lambda initiates by binding of the lambda O protein initiator to the origin of lambda DNA replication, ori lambda. The lambda P protein participates in subsequent steps of assembly of the lambda replication complex. A function of lambda P required for replication complex assembly is inactivated at 43 degrees C by the ts1 mutation. RESULTS: We found that the lambda replication complex assembled at 30 degrees C survives the temperature upshift in lambda crotsPts1 plasmid-harbouring bacteria. We present several lines of evidence that in this system (in which the replication complex assembly does not occur), the replication complex assembled prior to the temperature upshift is inherited by one of two daughter plasmid copies at each replication round for more than 30 cell generations. The 'old' replication complex-driven replication is chloramphenicol-resistant and rifampicin-sensitive. This replication is dependent on lambda O and host dnaK, dnaJ and grpE chaperone gene functions. CONCLUSIONS: The lambda O-containing replication complex is inherited together with DNA and bears information how to initiate the next round of replication at ori lambda; thus, we consider that this phenomenon deserves to be called protein inheritance.

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