Back to Search
Start Over
Chemical linkage of the tail to the right-hand end of bacteriophage lambda DNA
- Source :
- Journal of Molecular Biology. 87:1-9
- Publication Year :
- 1974
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 1974.
-
Abstract
- When solutions of bacteriophage λ are treated with a water-soluble carbodiimide (CMC), then lysed with formamide and observed with the electron microscope, over 90% of the DNA molecules are found to be attached to phage heads and tails. Sedimentation analysis shows that lysis is complete, and denaturation mapping shows that the right-hand end † of the DNA, and never the left-hand end, is attached to the phage tails. When the carbodiimide-treated phage are lysed and the DNA cleaved with RI endonuclease, the shortest fragment, which contains the right end of λ DNA, is as expected the only fragment found attached to the tails. Comparison of the length of the tail-linked fragment with the length of the free DNA fragment shows that the DNA does not extend to the end of the tail. It does appear to intrude a short distance (30% of the length of the tail, or 130 DNA base-pairs), but this distance is just at the limit of resolution. When phage are placed in 80% formamide and then immediately spread for electron microscopy, about 10% of the phage have partially ejected DNA. Denaturation mapping shows that it is the right end of the DNA which is ejected first.
- Subjects :
- Formamide
Lysis
Nucleic Acid Denaturation
Coliphages
law.invention
Bacteriophage
chemistry.chemical_compound
Endonuclease
Structural Biology
law
Centrifugation, Density Gradient
Escherichia coli
Denaturation (biochemistry)
Molecular Biology
Carbodiimide
Binding Sites
Base Sequence
Formamides
biology
DNA Viruses
Endonucleases
biology.organism_classification
Molecular biology
Carbodiimides
Microscopy, Electron
chemistry
DNA, Viral
biology.protein
Biophysics
Nucleic Acid Conformation
Electron microscope
Phosphorus Radioisotopes
DNA
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00222836
- Volume :
- 87
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Molecular Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a3ed6fdc4140df99c9f01f84590c93ff