We describe the characterization of 34 hybrid lambda bacteriophages carrying EcoRI fragments obtained from DNA of defective interfering particles of the Patton strain of Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). All cloned fragments contained S region terminal repeat sequences (TRs) fused to unique HSV-1 DNA. Several fragments contained deletions and rearrangements not described previously for DNA of HSV-1 defective interfering particles. A model describing the generation of defective interfering DNA based on recombination events involving the terminal "a" sequence as presented.