On inactivation of bacteriophage lambda by hydroxylamine

Hydroxylamine is a mutagen which is much more active on single-stranded DNA than on double-stranded DNA. It is shown here that the cohesive ends of lambda DNA, with 10 cytidine residues, constitute a hydroxylamine target roughly equal in magnitude to the entire duplex part of the molecule, which contains ca. 25 000 cytidine residues.