GENETIC EVOLUTION OF BACTERIOPHAGE, I. HYBRIDS BETWEEN UNRELATED BACTERIOPHAGES P22 AND FELS 2*

  1. Nobuto Yamamoto
  1. FELS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, PHILADELPHIA
  2. DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, PHILADELPHIA

Abstract

A new bacteriophage species, designated F22, was isolated from phage P22 stocks grown on Salmonella typhimurium Q1 lysogenic for Fels 2 at a frequency of less than 10-11. P22 has a very short tail with a hexagonal base plate and six spikes. Phage Fels 2 is morphologically similar to E. coli T-even phages, having a long tail with a contractile sheath and carrying no genetic region related to P22. Phage F22 is morphologically and serologically indistinguishable from Fels 2, but carries the c(c 1, c 2, and c 3) markers of P22. The color markers h 21, g, and m 3 of P22 do not appear in F22. Thus, F22 is evidently a recombinant between the unrelated bacteriophages P22 and Fels 2. The recombination between unrelated bacteriophages could play an important role in the evolution of bacteriophages.

Footnotes

  • ↵ * This investigation was supported in part by grants NIH(AI-06429) from the National Institutes of Health and NSF(GB-5773) from the National Science Foundation.

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  1. PNAS 1969-01 vol. 62 no. 1 63-69
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