Assembly of Phage Lambda in Vitro

Abstract

Edgar and Wood [1] have shown recently that it is possible to assemble, in vitro, the parts of phage T4 which accumulate in mutant infected cells to form infectious, viable phage particles. This complementation in vitro can also be demonstrated for phage lambda, as is shown below. One would expect lambda to be less complex in structure than T4, since the chromosome of lambda has only one fourth of the DNA content of T4 and presumably contains fewer genes. Indeed, it is found that the physiological functions of the genes of lambda, as revealed by in vitro assemblage, divide into two groups only-head donors and tail donors, in the terminology of Edgar and Wood [1]. Evidence is presented which suggests that the heads and tails of lambda can unite to form viable phage in the absence of other factors.

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