Aberrant immunity behaviour of hybrid lambda imm21 phages containing the DNA of ColE1-type plasmids

Abstract

Hybrid lambda and lambda imm21 bacteriophages carrying various ColE1-type plasmids have been constructed in vitro. The lambda imm21/plasmid recombinants display aberrant immunity behaviour, giving clear plaques under conditions where the parental phages give turbid ones and being able to grow on homoimmune lysogens. lambda imm lambda/plasmid recombinants show no such unusual behaviour. Studies with hybrids of a lambda imm21 cITS phage carrying pMB9 DNA showed the operation of the plasmid's replication system to be the basic cause of the aberrant immunity behaviour. The plasmid replication system could act as a complete alternative to the phage system during vegetative phage growth. The probable reason that lambda imm21 phages show such altered phenotypes when carrying a functional plasmid replication origin, whereas lambda imm lambda and lambda imm434 (Mukai et al., 1978) phages do not, is the relative ease of titration of the phage 21 repressor to allow transcription from pR21. Various uses are considered for the altered phenotypic behaviour of lambda imm21/ColE1-type plasmid hybrids.