HERSHEY A D, KAMEN M D, KENNEDY J W, GEST H
J Gen Physiol. 1951 Jan;34(3):305-19. doi: 10.1085/jgp.34.3.305.
The bacteriophage T4 containing assimilated radioactive phosphorus is inactivated at a rate proportional to the specific radioactivity of the constituent phosphorus. The beta radiation from the phosphorus makes a negligible contribution to this effect. The inactivation is therefore a direct consequence of the nuclear reaction, which kills the phage with an efficiency of about 1/12. Several phages related to T4 behave similarly. When radioactive phage is grown from a seed of non-radioactive phage, all of the phage progeny are subject to killing by radioactive decay. The phage is killed by beta radiation from P(32) with an efficiency of about 1/100 per ionization within the particle volume. Bacteriophage T4 and its relatives contain about 500,000 atoms of phosphorus per infective particle. Virtually all this phosphorus is adsorbed to bacteria with the specificity characteristic of the infective particles, and none of it can be removed from the particles by the enzyme desoxyribonuclease. The phosphorus content per particle, together with the published data on analytical composition, indicates a particle diameter close to 110 mmicro for the varieties of phage studied.
含有同化放射性磷的噬菌体T4的失活速率与组成磷的比放射性成正比。磷产生的β辐射对这种效应的贡献可忽略不计。因此，失活是核反应的直接结果，核反应杀死噬菌体的效率约为1/12。几种与T4相关的噬菌体表现出类似的行为。当从非放射性噬菌体种子培养出放射性噬菌体时，所有噬菌体后代都会因放射性衰变而被杀死。噬菌体被P(32)的β辐射杀死，在颗粒体积内每电离一次的效率约为1/100。每个感染性颗粒中，噬菌体T4及其相关噬菌体含有约500,000个磷原子。实际上，所有这些磷都以感染性颗粒的特异性特征吸附到细菌上，并且脱氧核糖核酸酶无法从颗粒中去除任何磷。每个颗粒的磷含量以及已发表的分析组成数据表明，所研究的噬菌体品种的颗粒直径接近110微米。
