Isolation of transducing particles of phi-80 bacteriophage that carry different regions of the Escherichia coli genome.

It has been possible to mate two strains harboring F-prime (F') factors and to isolate from such matings rare recombinants that behave as though the two episomes had fused. Thus, two genes not previously linked may be brought into close proximity. An F' factor carrying the attachment site for varphi80 was fused with one carrying the met-ppc-arg region of the chromosome. Lysogenization of such a strain, followed by induction, led to the isolation of varphi80arg(+) and varphi80met(+) transducing phages. This technique may be utilized as a general method for joining diverse bacterial genes to the genome of phage varphi80.