The pyrimidine oligodeoxyribonucleotides from the DNA molecules of bacteriophages f1, fd, and M13

Abstract

DNA from the filamentous bacteriophages fd and M13 has been degraded with diphenylamine in acid solution and the frequencies of occurrence of the pyrimidine oligodeoxyribonucleotides so released compared with the values previously obtained for the DNA of the related bacteriophage f1. Although the catalogs of pyrimidine tracts from each of the three DNAs are similar, significant differences between them were observed. The data suggest that bacteriophages fd and M13 are more closely related to each other than either is to bacteriophage f1. The recovery of pyrimidine bases has been checked in each case by demonstrating good agreement between the pyrimidine content of each of the three DNAs as calculated from the catalogs of oligodeoxyribonucleotides and the values found by others by direct base analysis.