Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1972 Nov;69(11):3195–3198. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.11.3195

Precursor and Product in Bacteriophage λ Recombination

Norman E Melechen 1, T A Hudnik-Plevnik 1,*
PMCID: PMC389734  PMID: 4564207

Abstract

Analyses of the time of recombination in bacteria infected with phage λ and in spheroplasts infected with purified phage λ DNA indicate a preponderance of recombination occurring before replication (“early recombination”) after infection with tandem dimers formed in vitro compared to linear monomer DNA and phage infections. Among the early recombinants is a large fraction of cells that produces one recombinant type exclusively. Two suggestions are discussed—that a dimer-like molecule is the precursor of the recombinant progeny molecule and that one recombinant chromosome is the frequent or exclusive product of a recombinational event.

Keywords: genetic recombination, recombination mechanism, phage dimers, dimer transfection

Full text

PDF
3195

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BURGI E., HERSHEY A. D. Sedimentation rate as a measure of molecular weight of DNA. Biophys J. 1963 Jul;3:309–321. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3495(63)86823-x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berg D. E., Gallant J. A. Tests of reciprocality in crossingover in partially diploid F strains of Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1971 Aug;68(4):457–472. doi: 10.1093/genetics/68.4.457. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Boon T., Zinder N. D. Genotypes produced by individual recombination events involving bacteriophage f1. J Mol Biol. 1971 May 28;58(1):133–151. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(71)90237-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hotchkiss R. D. Toward a general theory of genetic recombination in DNA. Adv Genet. 1971;16:325–348. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. JACOB F., WOLLMAN E. L. Etude génétique d'un bactériophage tempéré d'Escherichia coli. III. Effet du rayonnement ultraviolet sur la recombinaison génétique. Ann Inst Pasteur (Paris) 1955 Jun;88(6):724–749. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. KAISER A. D. A genetic study of the temperate coliphage. Virology. 1955 Nov;1(4):424–443. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(55)90036-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Melechen N. E., Hudnik-Plevnik T. A., Pfeifer G. S. Increased stability and reproducibility of Escherichia coli spheroplasts in the transfection assay of phage lambda DNA with polyethylene glycol instead of sucrose. Virology. 1972 Mar;47(3):610–617. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(72)90550-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Rush M. G., Warner R. C. Molecular recombination in a circular genome-phi X174 and S13. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1968;33:459–466. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1968.033.01.053. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Rush M. G., Warner R. C. Multiple length rings of phi-X174 and S13 replicative forms. 3. A possible intermediate in recombination. J Biol Chem. 1968 Sep 25;243(18):4821–4826. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Salzman L. A., Weissbach A. Formation of intermediates in the replication of phage lambda DNA. J Mol Biol. 1967 Aug 28;28(1):53–70. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(67)80077-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Segawa T., Tomizawa J. Formation of concatemers of lambda phage DNA in a recombination-deficient system. Mol Gen Genet. 1971;111(3):197–201. doi: 10.1007/BF00433104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Smith M. G., Skalka A. Some properties of DNA from phage-infected bacteria. J Gen Physiol. 1966 Jul;49(6):127–142. doi: 10.1085/jgp.49.6.127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Stahl F. W. One way to think about gene conversion. Genetics. 1969;61(1 Suppl):1–13. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Tomizawa J., Ogawa T. Replication of phage lambda DNA. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1968;33:533–551. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1968.033.01.061. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wang J. C., Davidson N. On the probability of ring closure of lambda DNA. J Mol Biol. 1966 Aug;19(2):469–482. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80017-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Weil J. Reciprocal and non-reciprocal recombination in bacteriopahge lambda. J Mol Biol. 1969 Jul 28;43(2):351–355. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(69)90276-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. van der Schans G. P., Aten J. B. Determination of molecular weight distributions of DNA by means of sedimentation in a sucrose gradient. Anal Biochem. 1969 Oct 15;32(1):14–30. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(69)90100-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES