DNA Homology, Redundancy and Genome Size of Four Rhizobium Bacteriophages

Rapidly reannealing DNA, containing repeated base sequences, was shown to be present in the genomes of four Rhizobium bacteriophages by studies of renaturation kinetics. Estimations of the mol. wt. of the DNA by measurement of kinetic complexity gave values of 1.3 x 10⁸ for phage c, 1.6 x 10⁸ for phage I, 9.4 x 10⁷ for phage e and 8.2 x 10⁷ for phage a. Comparison of the phage DNAs by annealing studies confirmed the classification of the phages into two groups.