Deoxyribonucleic acid replication in lambda bacteriophage mutants.

After ultraviolet light induction of Escherichia coli K-12 strain W3350(lambda), several structural intermediate forms of phage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are synthesized. The early defective lysogens of lambda, sus O(8), sus P(3), and T(11), were found to synthesize none of the DNA structural intermediates. A lysogen believed to be defective in all known phage activities, lambdasus N(7), was found to be able to synthesize an early phage DNA intermediate. The lysogen lambdasus Q(21), defective in late phage functions, is able to synthesize the early phage DNA intermediate and a concatenated molecule of greater molecular weight than the mature lambda DNA.