INCORPORATION OF BACTERIOPHAGE GENOME BY SPORES OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS.

Takahashi, I. (Microbiology Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). Incorporation of bacteriophage genome by spores of Bacillus subtilis. J. Bacteriol. 87:1499-1502. 1964-The buoyant density in a CsCl gradient of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from spores of Bacillus subtilis was found to be identical to that of DNA from vegetative cells. Density-gradient centrifugation of DNA of spores derived from cultures infected with phage PBS 1 revealed the presence of a minor band whose density corresponded to that of the phage DNA in addition to the spore DNA. No intermediate bands were present. The relative amount of the phage DNA present in the spores was estimated to be 11%, suggesting that spores of this organism may incorporate several copies of the phage genome. Although the possibility that true lysogeny may occur cannot be entirely eliminated, the results seem to indicate that the phage genomes incorporated into spores are not attached to the host chromosome in this system.