Restriction endonuclease map of corynebacteriophage omega ctox+ isolated from the Park-Williams no. 8 strain of Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Authors:
  • RRR Rappuoli
    R Rappuoli
  • JMJ L Michel
    J L Michel
  • JMJ R Murphy
    J R Murphy
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Abstract
The toxigenic corynebacteriophage .omega.tox+ was isolated from the hypertoxigenic Park-Williams no. 8 (PW8) strain of C. diphtheriae and compared with the toxigenic corynebacteriophage .beta.tox+. The physical size and host range of both phages were identical. An endonuclease restriction map of .omega.tox+ was constructed, and the locations of the cohesive ends (cos), phage attachment site (attP), as well as the diphtheria tox operon were identified. The genome of .omega.tox+ was found to differ from that of .beta.tox+ in 3 regions. In addition, .omega.tox+ was shown to be integrated into 2 nontandem corynebacterial phage attachment sites (attB1, attB2) in the PW8 chromosome. The differences in the restriction endonuclease digestion maps of .omega.tox+ and .beta.tox+ as well as the contribution of double lysogeny are discussed in relation to the hypertoxigenicity of the PW8 strain.

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