Open AccessTransduction of concatemeric plasmids containing the cos site of Lactococcus lactis bacteriophage sk1
Author(s) -
Chandry P.Scott,
Moore Sean C,
Davidson Barrie E,
Hillier Alan J
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2002.tb11419.x
Subject(s) - transduction (biophysics) , concatemer , lactococcus lactis , plasmid , bacteriophage , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , dna , genetics , escherichia coli , gene , biochemistry , bacteria , genome , lactic acid
Lactococcus lactis bacteriophage sk1 can transduce plasmids containing the phage cos site and surrounding DNA sequences at frequencies as high as 2×10 −3 transductants per PFU. Deletion analysis demonstrated that the presence of phage DNA spanning cos and putative R sites were the most important for efficient plasmid transduction. Inserts of 440 bp containing cos and the R sites were sufficient to induce transduction frequencies of 10 −4 transductants per PFU. The role of the R1 site was investigated by altering 14 of the 19 bases in the site. This resulted in a two‐fold decrease in transduction frequency compared to a 26‐fold decrease in transduction following deletion of the entire site. It was demonstrated that transducing plasmids were packaged as linear trimeric concatemers commencing at the cos site.