Bacteriophage T4 is a large virus that has been val-uable for studies of molecular genetic mechanisms. For the past 10 years, this laboratory has been making a focussed effort to study all of its DNA replication pro-teins (Alberts et al. 1983). However, an extremely high level of genetic recombination also occurs during T4 infections, estimated to result from an average of about 25 crossovers per genome quivalent of DNA (Stahl et al. 1964). This recombination appears to be largely in-dependent of the Escherichia coli host cell's genetic re-combination system: Few differences in recombination frequency have been observed when comparing infec-tions in wild-type strains of E. coli with infections in strains deficient in various recombination functions, including cells with lesions at the recA locus (Mortel-
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Formosa et al. (1984) studied this question.