Natural interspecific hybrids of transposable phages of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Bacterial viruses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa assigned to two groups, D3112 a nd B3, recombine with very low frequencies. Previous study of the genome st ructure of intergroup hybrids suggested the incompatibility of some genetic modules of these bacteriophages. In this work, several natural hybrid tran sposable phages that had the genomes largely consisting of modules of phage s from groups D3112 and B3, were described. The discovery of these phages s uggests the continuous genetic exchange in nature of these viruses belongin g to different species. This model is considered as promising from the view point of monitoring virus evolution.