title: Construction in vitro of "phage-plasmid" chimerae: a new tool to analyse the mechanism of plasmid maintenance.
abstract: In this paper, we report the construction in vitro of chimerae between lambdoid replacement vectors (Murray et al., 1977) and the miniF Apr plasmid: pSC138 (Timmis et al., 1975). lambdaF recombinants were shown to be chimerae between the lambda and the F replicons. By genetical tests, we have demonstrated that both lambda and F replication mechanisms are functional: the lambdaF recombinant behaves as a non defective plaque forming phage on lambda sensitive bacteria and establishes itself as a stable plasmid on recA F- homoimmune bacteria. In the extra-chromosomal state, the lambdaF recombinant apparently retains the controlled autonomous replication and the FI incompatibility characteristics of the F plasmid. The potential experimental uses of these phages are discussed.
mesh_terms: D003090:Coliphages / Q000235:genetics*; D004261:DNA Replication; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005144:F Factor; D010957:Plasmids; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D004279:DNA, Viral