Infectivity of lambda heteroduplex deoxyribonucleic acid molecules.

Heteroduplex deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules were formed in vitro by denaturing and renaturing a mixture of DNAs from a variety of lambda strains. The infectivity of these heteroduplexes was studied by using host-controlled modification and restriction to prevent infection by contaminating parental homoduplexes. Either strand was able to protect against degradation by restriction nucleases in vivo. A large proportion of progeny phage, which had been produced after infection with heteroduplexes containing noncomplementary base pairs at multiple loci, retained the genotype of one of the parental homoduplexes. The results indicate that conversion of heteroduplexes to homoduplexes in vivo by a DNA repair mechanism does not occur frequently. Molecules heterozygous for the c17 or vir operator mutations were not infectious; it is suggested that these mutations involve multiple base pairs.