| Abstract: | The degree of preferred orientation and the coiling of the deoxyribonucleic acid within phage T4 was studied by two independent techniques, namely, polarization of fluorescence and uv linear dichroism. A correlation between the two kinds of data was obtained, which indicated that a significant proportion (about 30%) of total phage DNA is aligned preferentially along the long axis of phage heads. Analyses of the data suggest that all of the phage DNA cannot be in a highly supercoiled helical configuration. A few models of the DNA arrangement in T4 have been discussed in which linear sidewise packings of DNA would be predominant and may explain the observed longitudinal orientation of intraphage DNA. |
