Chapter 33 

 The Nucleic Acids of the Bacterial Viruses 



Robert L. Sinsheimer 



Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology 

 Pasadena, California 



I. Introduction 187 



1 . Foreword 187 



2. Some General Features of Bacteriophage Infection 188 



II. Nucleic Acids of the T-Even Phages 193 



1 . Structural Aspects 193 



2. Replication 203 



3. Biochemistry of T-Even Phage Infection 211 



4. The Relationship between DNA and the Phage Genome 216 



5. Radiobiological Studies of the Process of Phage Infection 227 



III. Nucleic Acids of Other T Bacteriophages 229 



1 . Infection with Bacteriophage T5 229 



2. Infection with Bacteriophages Tl, T3, and T7 231 



3. Radiobiological Distinctions between the Tl, T3, and T7 Group and the 



T5 Plus T-Even Group 233 



IV. Nucleic Acids of Temperate Bacteriophages 235 



1 . The Lysogenic State 235 



2. Structural Aspects of Some Temperate Phages 237 



3. Biochemistry of Lysogenization 237 



4. Nature of the Prophage 239 



5. Biochemical Events Following Induction 240 



V. Nucleic Acids of Minute Bacteriophages 242 



VI. Conclusion 244 



I. Introduction 



1. Foreword 



Because of the variations in experimental techniques employed, it has 

 been convenient to group viruses into three large classes according to their 

 hosts, the animal viruses, the plant viruses, and the bacterial viruses, or 

 bacteriophages. Although the bacterial viruses were the last of the three 

 classes to be discovered, 1 • 2 it seems fair to say that it is with this class 

 that the greatest progress has been made in the study of virus-host interac- 

 tions, of the fate and function of the infecting particle, of the origin of 



! F. W. Twort, Lancet ii, 1241 (1915). 



2 F. d'Herelle, Compt. rend. acad. sci. 165, 373 (1917). 



187 



