Isolation of temperature-sensitive mutants of bacteriophage MB78 and correlation between the physical and genetic maps.

In order to study the biochemistry and genetics of the virulent virus MB78 of Salmonella typhimurium, 31 temperature-sensitive mutants of the phage were isolated following mutagenesis with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. These have been classified into six complementation groups (A through F). Linkage between different complementation groups has been mapped by using two factor crosses between representative members of each group. To correlate the physical and genetic maps of the phage, complementation between bacterial clones carrying plasmids with EcoRI fragments of the phage DNA as inserts and the ts mutants was studied. Good correlation between the physical and genetic maps has been obtained. Tentative locations of the ts mutations on the phage genome have thus been determined.