Open AccessBacteriophage SP6 Is Closely Related to Phages K1-5, K5, and K1E but Encodes a Tail Protein Very Similar to That of the Distantly Related P22
Author(s) -
Dean Scholl,
Sankar Adhya,
Carl R. Merril
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.652
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1067-8832
pISSN - 0021-9193
DOI - 10.1128/jb.184.10.2833-2836.2002
Subject(s) - biology , lysogenic cycle , lytic cycle , bacteriophage , gene , podoviridae , terminator (solar) , genetics , virus , escherichia coli , ionosphere , physics , astronomy
The lytic salmonella phage SP6 encodes a tail protein with a high degree of sequence similarity to the tail protein of the biologically unrelated lysogenic salmonella phage P22. The SP6 tail gene is flanked by an upstream region that contains a promoter and a downstream region that contains a putative Rho-independent transcription terminator, giving it a cassette or modular structure almost identical to the structure of the tail genes of coliphages K1E, K5, and K1-5. It now appears that SP6, K1-5, K5, and K1E are very closely related but have different tail fiber proteins, giving them different host specificities.