Working with Phage P22
- 1Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule (I2BC), 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- 2Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, 41080 Sevilla, Spain
- ↵3Correspondence: lionello.bossi{at}i2bc.paris-saclay.fr
Abstract
Transduction experiments in Escherichia coli and Salmonella are usually performed with virulent phage variants. A widely used P1 mutant, called P1 vir, carries one or more uncharacterized mutations that prevent formation of lysogens. In the case of P22, by far the most frequently used variant is named P22 HT105/1 int-201. This phage has a high transducing (HT) frequency due to a mutant nuclease with lower specificity for the pac sequence. As a result, ∼50% of the P22 HT phage heads carry random transducing fragments of chromosomal DNA. The int mutation reduces the formation of stable lysogens. The basic steps in handling the P22 HT105/1 int-201 phage and in performing transduction experiments in Salmonella are described here.
Footnotes
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From the Experiments in Bacterial Genetics collection, by Lionello Bossi, Andrew Camilli, and Angelika Gründling.
