Bacteriophages of Bordetella sp.: features of lysogeny and conversion.

It has been the purpose of this paper to study molecular-biological features of the Bordetella bacteriophage interaction with the host cell during lysogeny and conversion as well as to determine the degree of homology between genomes of homologous and heterologous bacteriophages. Genomes of bacteriophages from B. pertussis 134, 41405 and B. bronchiseptica 214 were studied. Heteroduplex and restriction analyses revealed a heterogeneity of bacteriophage populations, and their DNAs were found to differ in size and position of inserts. As shown by blot hybridization, the bacteriophage genome is not inserted into the chromosome of the lysogenic cell but apparently exists as an autonomous plasmid replicon. It has been established that during conversion only a part of the phage genome is inserted into the chromosome of the recipient cell.