Mapping of a temperate bacteriophage active on Bacillus subtilis

Abstract

Bacteriophage phi105 is a temperate bacteriophage for Bacillus subtilis 168. Temperature-sensitive and plaque mutants of phi105 were isolated. The results of two- and three-factor crosses with these mutants suggest the vegetative map of phi105 to be circular. The location of prophage phi105 between bacterial markers phe-1 and ilvA1 was shown by means of PBS1 transduction. Five markers in the prophage were linearly ordered with respect to the bacterial markers. Linkage between bacterial and prophage markers was demonstrated in transformation experiments with deoxyribonucleic acid extracted from lysogenic bacteria. The data demonstrate that prophage phi105 is linearly inserted into the bacterial chromosome.