Nature 212, 534 - 535 (29 October 1966); doi:10.1038/212534a0

Reconstruction in vivo of Irradiated Escherichia coli Deoxyribonucleic Acid; the Rejoining of Broken Pieces

R. A. MCGRATH & R. W. WILLIAMS

Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

DNA is presumably the primary site at which radiation damage has biological consequences¹. Although lesions in single strands can be repaired after ultra-violet exposure^2,3, it has not been shown conclusively that X-ray damage to bacterial DNA can be repaired. In order to study the latter problem, we have devised a method for assaying long pieces of single stranded DNA in order to facilitate the detection of a small number of breaks in single strands induced by X-rays.

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