fd and IKe are two similar filamentous phage which infect their hosts
by means of pili found on the host membrane: fd infects bacteria beari
ng F pili, whereas IKe infects bacteria bearing N or I pili. Infection
is mediated by the gene 3 protein (g3p), which of the nine proteins f
ound in both phage is the most diverse. Previous attempts to incorpora
te g3p from one phage into the other by complementation have been unsu
ccessful [Bross et al. (1988) J. Gen. Microbiol. 134, 461-471]. Here w
e have grafted different parts of IKe g3p to the end of fd g3p and so
augmented the host range of fd phage. We show that phage bearing such
chimeric g3p are able to infect bacteria bearing both N and F pili pro
viding they contain at least the receptor domain of IKe g3p, the infec
tion of N bearing bacteria occurring at a level 70 000 times greater t
han background. This level of infection can be increased tenfold by in
cluding the glycine-rich domain as well. Addition of the penetration d
omain does not improve the level of infection above that of the recept
or domain alone, indicating that the fd penetration domain is function
al in the infection of bacteria bearing either N or F pili. Similarly
derived fd phagemid also show increased infection of bacteria bearing
N pili, albeit at much lower levels, suggesting that efficient infecti
on requires more than one functional g3p on the surface of the phage.