Acquisition of Thymidylate Synthetase Activity by a Thymine-requiring Mutant of Bacillus subtilis following Infection by the Temperate Phage  3

Abstract

SUMMARYInfection of a thymineless strain of Bacillus subtilis with cither the temperate phage 43 or its clear plaque mutant ~3c enabled DNA to be formed in the absence of added thymine. Growth of phage ~3c under these conditions was associated with an enhanced rate of DNA synthesis comparcd with uninfected cultures growing in the presence of thymine; when phage 43 became a prophage the lysogcnized cells synthesized DNA at the same rate as the uninfected bacteria with thyminc. The thymine independence of phage-infected bacteria was due to the acquisition of the cnzyme thymidylate synthctase absent in the uninfected mutant bacteria. Phage ~3c growth caused a rapid rise in the specific activity of the enzyme after a short lag, and by the time the cells lysed there was approximately ten times more activity than in uninfected wild-type B. subtilis. In thymineless B. subtilis lysogenizcd with phage 43 the amount of thymidylate synthetase was the same as in wild-type B. subti[is. Phage DNA was ablc to transform thymine-requiring

Characterization of SPβ: a temperate bacteriophage from Bacillus subtilis 168M

“…Bacillrts srtbtilis phage p 1 1, which has only recently been studied, does have physical characteristics which are very similar to SPP. In addition we have found that SPP antiserum does neutralize p l l , and also neutralizes $3T, a phage which is closely related to p l l (19,20), However, at least the immunity region of SPP is heterologous to that of pl 1 and $3T, since the latter can form plaques on bacteria which are lysogenic for SPP, and double lysogens between SPP and p l l or between SPP and $3T can be prepared.…”

Three New Temperate Phages of Bacillus subtilis

“…The conversion to thymine prototrophy was stable. In this respect, the new phages are similar to 43T (Tucker, 1969), pl 1 (Dean et al, 1976), Z (Hemphill et al, 1980) and SPR (Noyer-Weidner et al, 1983), but not to SPP or the other phages.…”

“…Preliminary data on two of them have been published (Fernandes et al, 1983). We compared the new viruses with the following temperate B. subtilis phages: 43T (Tucker, 1969), 4105 (Birdsell et al, 1969), SP02 (Boice, 1969), SP16 (Thorne & Mele, 1974), SPP (Warner et al, 1977), p l l (Dean et al, 1976), p6, p10, p14 (Dean et al, 1978a), Zeta (Z) (Hemphill et al,, 1980) and SPR (Trautner et al, 1980; Noyer-Weidner et al, 1983).…”

Genome Homology and Host Range of Some SPbeta-related Bacteriophages of Bacillus Subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens

“…Group III phages, which include SPfl, SPR, ~3T, Rhol 1, IG1, IG3, Z and H2 (Tucker, 1969;Warner et aL, 1977;Dean et al, 1978;Rutberg, 1982;Fernandes et al, 1986;Spancake eta/., 1987;Zahler et aL, 1987 b), have been the subject of recent investigations due to several interesting properties.…”

“…Some of these phages are known to encode thymidylate synthetase enzymes (Tucker, 1969;Stroynowski, 1978Stroynowski, , 1981Fernandes et al, 1986;Weiner, 1986;Spancake et al, 1987), DNA methylases (Noyer-Weidner et al, 1985;Giinthert et aL, 1986; for review see Gfinthert & Trautner, 1984;Weiner, 1986), repressor-like proteins (Rosenthal et al, 1979;McLaughlin et al, 1986) and apparently in one case an endonuclease that is specific for Bacillus DNA (Sargent et al, 1985). In addition, at least some of these phages can transduce bacterial markers that are adjacent to their attachment sites in the B. subtilis chromosome (Zahler et al, 1977(Zahler et al, , 1987bRosenthal et aL, 1979;Lipsky et al, 1981;Fink & Zahler, 1982;, and in cytoplasmic plasmids (M. Weiner, data not shown).…”