ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BACTERIOPHAGE-BCJA1, A NOVEL TEMPERATE BACTERIOPHAGE ACTIVE AGAINST THE ALKALIPHILIC BACTERIUM, BACILLUS-CLARKII

The isolation and characterization of a novel bacteriophage active aga inst the obligately alkaliphilic bacterium Bacillus clarkii is describ ed. The bacteriophage, designated BCJA1, is a member of the Siphovirid ae family with a B1 morphology. It possesses an isometric head, which measures 65 nm between opposite apices, and a noncontractile tail of 1 95 nm length. It had a buoyant density of 1.518 g/ml and an estimated particle mass of 37 x 10(7) daltons. BCJA1 was stable over the pH rang e of 6-11. A one-step growth experiment conducted at pH 10 demonstrate d a latent period of about 40 min and a burst size of approximately 40 . The purified bacteriophage appeared to consist of 10 proteins with t he major head and tail proteins likely to be of molecular weight 36 50 0 and 28 000, respectively. The genome size was estimated to be betwee n 32.1 and 34.8 kb. The percent G + C content of purified bacteriophag e DNA was 45.6. The wildtype bacteriophage is temperate but a clear pl aque mutant was isolated.