On the sequential packaging of bacteriophage P22 DNA

Bacteriophage P22 is thought to package daughter chromosomes serially along concatemeric DNA. We present experiments which show that the average DNA packaging series length increases with time after infection, which supports this model. In addition, we have analyzed the effect on average series length of lowering the amount of the various individual proteins involved in DNA packaging. These results support the notion that the protein products of gene 2 and gene 3 are both more stringently required for initiation of sequential DNA packaging series than for their extension, and they are compatible with a model for the control of series length in which that length is determined, at least in part, by a competition between series initiation events and extension events.