Electron microscopic study of DNA packing in phi(kz) bacteriophage (Pseudomonas Aeruginosa) irradiated with laser in the presence of a dye.

DNA packing of bacteriophage phikz (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) was studied by electron microscopy after gentle destruction of the capsid with powerful laser impulse in aqueous virus suspension in the presence organic dye. Suspension of destroyed phage heads contained complexes of genomic DNA with endogenous capsid proteins characterized by pronounced regular structure. The type of these structures corresponds to one the main model of phage DNA packing, the so-called coil packing.