Abstract
Rescue of adsorption properties from UV-irradiated T4 by T2 as a helper phage, revealed progeny phage with intermediate properties. Fourteen independent progeny phages, plating onE. coli B/2, were plated on several indicator strains and their adsorption properties were also studied with specific T4 antibodies. Two of these, plating onE. coli KS/4, were not inactivated by the T4 antiserum, and were T2h without apparent T4 properties. The other 12 progeny phages did not plate on KS/4, and were inactivated, but at a slower rate than the parental T4. Their mean efficiency of plating onE. coli B/2 (0.83) was significantly lower than that of the parental T4. The efficiency of plating was positively correlated with the velocity of inactivation by T4 antiserum. The observations were explained by assuming that the progeny phages were recombinants of T4 and T2 loci for adsorption sites.
Plating of these 12 progeny phages on several indicator strains showed that they were allrII mutants and all, except one, wererI mutants too. In addition, two weretu andh 4, respectively. The condition for the appearance of multiple mutants might be a complementation by T2 of UV-damaged functions, which otherwise fail to induce the completion of the lytic cycle in monocomplexes of extracellularly irradiated T4.
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De Groot, B. Marker rescue of the adsorption properties of bacteriophage T 4 by bacteriophage T 2. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 32, 17–24 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02097441
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02097441