ISSN:
1617-4623
Keywords:
Halobacterial
;
Phage
;
Methylation
;
5-methyl-dCMP
;
Water stability
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Summary A new bacteriophage from Halobacterium halobium has been isolated and partially characterized. It is not homologous to the phage ΦH (Schnabel, et al. 1982) which infects the same bacterium, though it appeared spontaneously in a culture of ΦH adapted to H. halobium NRL/JW. The size and morphology of ΦN are comparable to that of other known halophages. The genome of ΦN consists of linear double-stranded DNA, 56 kb in size, whose dCMP is totally replaced by 5-methyl-dCMP. This is the second case of a fully cytosine-methylated genome, the bacteriophage XP12 from Xanthomonas oryzae, being so far the only one reported. Like ΦH, the ΦN, genome seems to have terminal redundancy and circular permutation. ΦN is the first halobacterial phage which survives prolonged exposure to low ionic strength environments. After 48 h incubation in distilled water a loss in infectivity of less than 50% is observed.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00425693
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