Evidence that HT mutant strains of bacteriophage P22 retain an altered form of substrate specificity in the formation of transducing particles in Salmonella typhimurium

Abstract

The effects of two different deletions of the tryptophan operon on the cotransduction linkage of the nearby cysB and pyrF markers were studied using three sets of donor lysates, each produced by a different HT mutant P22 phage strain. Each trp operon deletion (present in both donor and recipient to preserve homology) caused changes in the cotransduction frequencies. This indicated that the HT mutant phage encapsulating mechanism, whose ability to discriminate phage DNA from host-cell DNA is absent or diminished, could still distinguish among nucleotide sequences in selecting bacterial chromosome sites at which to initiate transducing particle formation. The three HT mutant phage strains each produced different sets of cotransduction linkage values, indicating that this aspect of substrate specificity was altered differently and uniquely by each HT mutation. © 1976, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.