THOMAS C A
J Gen Physiol. 1959 Jan 20;42(3):503-23. doi: 10.1085/jgp.42.3.503.
T(2) and T(4) bacteriophage have been exposed to various treatments which are known to release the encapsulated DNA. The unseparated reaction products have been examined by autoradiography. The results indicate the presence of one large subunit of DNA (molecular weight 45 x 10(6)) for each former phage particle. Some smaller subunits of molecular weight 12 x 10(6) have been observed. The large subunit is sensitive to very small amounts of DNAase, and is resistant to mixed proteases and cannot be dispersed by banding in cesium chloride density gradients. The sensitivity to fragmentation by P(32) decay and the increase in this sensitivity following heat treatment are best explained by assuming that the large subunit is a duplex of polynucleotide strands over most of its length. The presence of hypothetical non-DNA interconnections is considered.
T(2)和T(4)噬菌体已接受各种已知能释放被包裹DNA的处理。未分离的反应产物已通过放射自显影进行检测。结果表明，每个先前的噬菌体颗粒存在一个大的DNA亚基（分子量45×10⁶）。还观察到一些分子量为12×10⁶的较小亚基。大亚基对极少量的DNA酶敏感，对混合蛋白酶有抗性，并且不能通过在氯化铯密度梯度中进行密度梯度离心而分散。通过假设大亚基在其大部分长度上是多核苷酸链的双链体，可以最好地解释对P(32)衰变导致的片段化的敏感性以及热处理后这种敏感性的增加。文中考虑了假设的非DNA连接的存在。
