RECOMBINATIONAL ORIGIN OF NATURAL TRANSPOSABLE PHAGES OF RELATED SPECIES BELONGING TO GROUP B3 ACTIVE ON PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA BACTERIA

A heteroduplex analysis of four related transposable phages-B3, PM57, PM62, and Hw12-of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa B3 group was performed. H eteroduplex structures, restriction maps, and data on DNA-DNA hybridiz ation obtained upon hybridization of phage DNA restriction fragments w ith labeled probes representing different regions of the phage genomes are in good agreement. The data obtained strongly confirmed the recom binational origin of the analyzed phages. Thus, all natural transposab le phages of P. aeruginosa, including phages from both group B3 and sp ecies D3112, were shown to have a recombinational origin.