[Physico-chemical properties of DNA from representatives of a population of Pseudomonas bacteriophages]

Twenty-four bacteriophages of Pseudomonas similar in terms of their morphology and structure were studied. The genomes of 23 bacteriophages from a population widespread in Belorussia and of one bacteriophage from the Krasnodar Region were shown to be double-helical DNAs with the content of GC base pairs from 46.8 to 66.7%. Four endonucleases (Eco R1, Hind III, Bam H1, and Eco RV) were used in the restriction analysis. Phage 8 which differed from the other phages in the area of its distribution was found to represent an individual group. The other phages were subdivided into eight related groups and had an identical restriction map within each group. The mean molecular masses of phage DNAs calculated by the method of summing the molecular masses of restricts ranged from 27.8 to 31.0 MDa.