Morphogenesis of the tail fiber of bacteriophage T4

Summary The tail fiber component ofcoli phage T4 was purified and partially characterized. The material was purified approximately 1 200 fold over the original lysate obtained fromE. coli B/1 cells infected with a mutant in gene 34 (am A455). The purified material was ultracentrifugally, electrophoretically and electron microscopically homogeneous. Its chemical composition were also analyzed.The purified component was characterized to be a half fiber controlled by at least four genes, 35, 36, 37, and 38.This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Japan, and a grant (No. 5 ROI GM-10982) from the National Institute of Health, U.S.A.