The presumptive tof gene product of Coli phage 434 has been purified from cells carrying lambdaimm434cIdv plasmid known to contain only some of the "early" genes of phage 434 and lambda. It was detected and tentatively identified as tof protein primarily by its ability to specifically bind to phage 434 DNA. The protein has a molecular weight of about 11,000 and requires Mg2+ for specific DNA binding, unlike 434 cI-repressor.