Phage and defective phage of strains of Myxococcus

Abstract

Phage-like particles were found in the supernatants of cultures of strains of Myxococcus xanthus, M. virescens and M. fulvus. The largest number of such particles was associated with M. virescens V2. Most of the particles were similar in morphology to the virulent Myxococcus phage, MX-1. Several new phages were isolated from soil and animal droppings. A new phage was isolated from cultures of M. virescens V2. All resembled phage MX-1 in morphology and were related to phage MX-1 serologically. One of these phage, øm, was characterized by fractionation of its proteins by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by analysis of the restriction fragments of its DNA. The very close relatedness with MX-1 was confirmed by these techniques. Phage øm, was found to exist in a state of pseudolysogeny with strains of M. virescens and M. fulvus. Two types of bacteriocin-like activity were found associated with Myxococcus strains. In one case, the activity was extracted from chloroform-killed or from sonicated cells. In the second case it was associated with extracellular material. Strains of Salmonella and Cytophaga were found to be good indicators for this latter activity. These strains were found to be killed by phage MX-1. The significance of these data for origin of the phages of myxococci are discussed and it is proposed that MX-1 and the newly isolated phages may be virulent mutants of a family of lysogenic phages.