Lethal modifications of DNA via the transmutation of 32P and 33P incorporated in the genome of the S13 bacteriophage.

When circular single-stranded DNA of phage S13 is labelled with 32P or 33P, the transmutations very efficiently bring about a loss of phage infectiousness (efficiency = 1 for 32P and 0.73 for 33P). For both radionuclides, the lethal efficiencies as well as the lethal events are different. In the case of 32P, the lethal event is the loss of the circular integrity of the DNA molecule, occurring as a consequence of a systematic single strand-break caused by each 32P decay (100%). Conversely, in the case of 33P, the lethal events are either a single strand-break (40%) or a local stereochemical modification (33%). The same primary event, the substitution at each 33P decay of a phosphate by a sulfate molecule, leads to one of these lethal events in relation to the decay site. Moreover, neither the phage adsorption nor its genome injection into bacteria depends on the physical state of the genome, and thus lethality is revealed at only the genetic level.