Open AccessBiochemical and genetic analysis of lambdaW, the newly isolated lambdoid phage.
Author(s) -
Borys Wróbel,
S Srutkowska,
Grzegorz Węgrzyn
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
acta biochimica polonica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.452
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1734-154X
pISSN - 0001-527X
DOI - 10.18388/abp.1998_4308
Subject(s) - lysogenic cycle , lytic cycle , bacteriophage , escherichia coli , biology , phagemid , lambda phage , genome , temperateness , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , virology , virus
Otherwise isogenic Escherichia coli CP78 (relA+) and CP79 (relA-) strains are commonly used in studies on the stringent control, the bacterial response to amino acid starvation. We found that these strains are lysogenic for a phage which is spontaneously induced with a low frequency, producing virions able to infect other E. coli strains. Genetic studies, restriction analysis of the phage DNA genome, and electron microscopy revealed that this phage is very similar to, but not identical with, bacteriophage lambda. We called the newly isolated phage lambdaW, and found that most of CP78/CP79 ancestor strains are lysogenic for this phage.