GENOME HOMOLOGY AND SUPERINFECTION IMMUNITY BETWEEN TEMPERATE AND VIRULENT LACTOBACILLUS-DELBRUECKII BACTERIOPHAGES

The presence of short homologous DNA segments along the genomes of the temperate phage mv4 and the virulent phages LL-H, LL-K and JCL1032 of Lactobacillus delbrueckii was demonstrated with Southern hybridizatio ns. One of these segments, the 2817 nt MIS element of phage mv4, was f urther characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis and by superinfec tion immunity studies.