Unusual biophysical properties of the temperate phage α

The Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Nucleic Acids of Bacteriophages and Bacterial Cells

“…Studies of Celano et a!. (267) and of Freifelder (268) on phage a, a double-stranded DNA virus which exhibits an unusual sensitivity to p32 decay, indicates that single-strand scissions can inactivate this phage also.…”

Genetic Map of Bacteriophage α

“…It contains a double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule (2), the strands of which exhibit a density difference in CsCl gradients (3,21) and are separable on a methylated albuminkieselguhr column (4). The DNA of this virus also presents an abnormally high sensitivity to X-irradiation and 32p decay (5,13,14). The temperate nature of the phage is peculiar in that lysogenized bacteria undergo spontaneous curing at a high rate (15), the frequency of which can be increased by acridine dye treatment (1).…”