Early intracellular events in the replication of bacteriophage T4 deoxyribonucleic acid. V. Further studies on the T4 protein-deoxyribonucleic acid complex.

Soon after infection parental deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) enters a structure sedimenting fast to the bottom of a sucrose gradient. The addition of chloramphenicol (CM) prevents formation of this structure, whereas treatment with Pronase releases DNA which sediments thereafter with the speed characteristic of phenol-extracted replicative DNA. It is assumed therefore that the structure responsible for fast sedimentation of replicative DNA is a newly synthesized protein. Those fast-sedimenting complexes contain preferentially the replicative form of parental DNA; this was proven by density labeling experiments. Progeny DNA labeled with (3)H-thymidine added after infection can also be detected preferentially in this fast-sedimenting moiety. The association of the DNA with the complexing protein is of a colinear or quasi-colinear type. This was proven by introducing double-strand scissions into DNA embedded in the replicative complex; double-strand scissions do not liberate DNA from the fast-sedimenting complex. Despite the apparent intimate relation between protein and DNA, DNA residing in complexes is fully sensitive to the action of nucleases. Shortly prior to the appearance of the fast-sedimenting complex, parental DNA displays still another characteristic: at about 3 min after infection, it sediments faster than reference, but sizeably slower than the complex which appears at roughly 4 to 5 min after infection. The transition between these two fast-sedimenting types of moieties is not continuous. This fast-sedimenting intermediate, which appears at 3 min after infection, cannot be inhibited by the addition of CM either at the moment or prior to infection. Fast-sedimenting intermediate can be destroyed by sodium dodecyl sulfate, Pronase, or phenol extraction. The progeny DNA labeled with (3)H-thymidine between 3 and 3.5 min after infection can be recovered in fast-sedimenting intermediate. The contribution of newly synthesized progeny DNA is so small that it cannot be detected as a shift of the parental density in a density labeling experiment. Small fragments of progeny DNA recovered in fast-sedimenting intermediate are not covalentlv attached to parental molecules and represent both strands of T4 DNA.