Genetics of P2 and Related Phages

Abstract

This chapter focuses on phage P2, but whenever possible, comparative information on a number of less well-studied, P2-related bacteriophages that are supplied. It discusses that the genetic material of the virus appears in a number of forms: Compact and inert in the free phage particle, or extended and variously active in the host cell as vegetative phage following infection of a sensitive bacterium, superinfection pre-prophage, following infection of an immune bacterium, prophage, integrated into the host cell chromosome in an established lysogen, and plasmid, in carrier cells. These forms of the genetic material of the virus may be studied with various appropriate physical methods, while genetic theory supplies the thread that connects them. The temperate bacteriophage most widely studied to date is phage λ. The temperate phage P2, whose biology and genetics are reviewed here, promises to be an equally rewarding subject for intensive study. In the first place, P2 appears to be rather different from λ in a number of biologically interesting properties.