KLUYVERA BACTERIOPHAGE KVP1 - A NEW MEMBER OF THE PODOVIRIDAE FAMILY PHYLOGENETICALLY RELATED TO THE COLIPHAGE T7

A DNA containing bacteriophage, Kvp1, was isolated from the water of a very polluted river, the Matanza river, near the central district of Buenos Aires City. This bacteriophage infects bacteria belonging to th e Khyvera a cryocrescens species (strain 21g) isolated from the same r iver. Kvp1 is a lytic bacteriophage and its propagation characteristic s are: burst sine 30, latent period 13 min and rise period 10 min. Mor phologically, Kvp1 is a small icosahedral bacteriophage, 59.1 nm in di ameter, which possesses a short wedge-shaped tail. Its buoyant density in ClCs is 1.517 g/cm(3). Kvp1 DNA is linear, double stranded and app roximately 40 000 bp in size. The viral particle is composed of at lea st nine proteins. SDS-PAGE patterns of these proteins and of those pro duced during the host infection, in addition to its morphological and genomic characteristics, suggested that Kvp1 is similar to the colipha ge T7. Molecular cloning, sequencing and computer-assisted analysis of Kvp1 DNA fragments confirmed the relationship to the coliphage. Takin g this into account, the partial sequence of the phage RNA polymerase was used to construct phylogenetic relationships between Kvp1 and othe r related phages. To our knowledge, Kvp1 is the first bacteriophage de scribed which uses as host a member of the Kluyvera bacterial genus. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.