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Structure of Bacillus subtilis Bacteriophage 25 and 25 Deoxyribonucleic Acid

Department of Microbiology and School of Dentistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

ABSTRACT

The structure of Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage 25 and 25 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) were studied by electron microscopy. The head of 25 is a regular polyhedron measuring 75 nm in diameter. The uncontracted tail of 25 is 130 nm in length and includes a large, complex tail plate. Phage 25 DNA is double-stranded and has a molecular weight of approximately 100 million as determined by electron microscopic length measurements and analytical band sedimentation in CsCl. The complementary strands of 25 DNA contain numerous random interruptions. Chemical analysis of 25 DNA demonstrated that 5-hydroxymethyluracil replaces thymine and that the DNA has a mole per cent (guanine plus cytosine) of 42.