TRANSCRIPTION IN VIVO OF DNA FROM BACTERIOPHAGE SP8

The DNA of bacteriophage SP8, when denatured, yields two components differing in buoyant density in cesium chloride gradients and separable by chromatography on a column of methylated bovine serum albumin and kieselguhr. The denser of the two strands (H) contains more pyrimidines and fewer purines than the lighter (L) strand. Only the H strand forms hybrids with the RNA synthesized by the infected host. The L strand is capable of annealing with complementary RNA synthesized in vitro with it as primer in reactions catalyzed by RNA polymerase. During the vegetative development of phage, host-specific messenger RNA is also synthesized.