The structural organization of DNA packaged within the heads of T4 wild-type, isometric and giant bacteriophages

Abstract

We present electron microscopic and X-ray diffraction evidence concerning the structural organization of condensed DNA within a series of T4 bacteriophage with the following head morphologies: prolate (wild-type), isometric and giant (with greatly increased axial ratio). In all cases, the DNA helix segments are locally parallel and 27 A apart. For the giant particles, we show that the DNA forms a large coil whose axis is perpendicular to the axis of the phage tail. This evidence, combined with previous results from a series of isometric bacteriophages (Earnshaw and Harrison, 1977), leads to a model for the organization of condensed DNA that may apply to most dsDNA-containing bacteriophages.