Reverse genetics and recombination in Phi8, a dsRNA bacteriophage

Abstract

Bacteriophage Phi8 has a genome of three dsRNA segments. It is able to acquire plasmid transcripts of cDNA copies of the genomic segments as replacements of its resident chromosomes. It is also able to effect recombination between the plasmid transcripts and the resident chromosomes. Depending upon the extent of sequence identity between the plasmid transcript and the resident chromosome, the recombination can be homologous or heterologous. Homologous recombination has not previously been reported for viruses with double-stranded RNA genomes.