MECHANISM OF DNA CHAIN GROWTH III. EQUAL ANNEALING OF T4 NASCENT SHORT DNA CHAINS WITH THE SEPARATED COMPLEMENTARY STRANDS OF THE PHAGE DNA

摘要

Nascent short DNA chains isolated from T4-infected E. coli under a variety of conditions anneal equally to the separated complementary phage DNA strands. The samples examined include: pulse-labeled short chains isolated by alkaline sucrose gradient sedimentation from the T4D (wild type)-infected cells in both the early and late stages of phage DNA synthesis; nascent chains accumulated during ligase inhibition of T4 ts B20-infected cells; and the single-stranded nascent short chains isolated from T4D-infected cells by mild procedures involving no denaturation treatment. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that both strands of DNA are synthesized discontinuously.