Correlation between Thermal Stability Map and Base Substitution Map of DNA from Related Bacteriophages

Abstract

The number density of substituted bases among related bacteriophages (fd, 1 and M13) is heterogeneous along the DNA strand although most base substitutions do not alter the coded amino acids. Local thermal stability of the double helical DNA is also heterogeneous. There is a negative correlation between these two maps. The same conclusion holds between less closely related phages, φX174 and G4.