Similarity of genetic distance determined from DNA thermal denaturation profiles to standard estimates of bacteriophage relatedness.

High resolution thermal denaturation profiles of a series of potentially related bacteriophages of Bacillus subtilis contain a multitude of distinctive features that permit them to be divided into at least four groups. In addition, the profiles can be used to derive the quantitative parameter, genetic distance, defined by Soumpasis (Soumpasis, D. (1980) J. Theor. Biol. 86, 137-147). Both the quantitative and the qualitative intercomparisons of profiles are in general agreement with the results of standard techniques for estimating genetic relatedness.