Abstract
A new class of bacteriophage was characterized in purified T5 stocks. Regardless of the host cell, these phages were irreversibly blocked at the first-step-transfer stage under conditions in which whole DNA injection normally takes place. However, they expressed their first-step-transfer functions. These observations confirmed the previously established heterogeneity of T5 bacteriophage populations and provided a new way to define a phage function necessary to release the blocking of T5 DNA injection at the first-step-transfer stage.