Abstract
Bacteriophage ψM1, a virulent, oxygen resistant phage of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum strain Marburg, was isolated from an anaerobic sludge digester operated at 55°C to 60°C. A reproducible plaque assay and an enrichment procedure for the preparation of high-titer lysates (2x1010 PFU/ml) were established. One-step growth experiments at 62°C showed that the latent period was 4 h and the burst size was 5–6 infective particles per cell. The phage infected Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Marburg but none of three other thermophilic representatives of the genus Methanobacterium that were tested. Electron micrographs showed that phage ψM1 has a polyhedral head of 55 nm diameter and a tail of 210 nm in lenght. The ψM1 genome consists of linear double-stranded DNA with a size of 30.4±1.0 kb. Restriction and hybridization analysis of DNA extracted from phage particles revealed two types of linear molecules with the size of the phage genome. About 85% of the DNA molecules in such preparations were genomes of ψM1 whereas approximately 15% were multimers of the cryptic 4.5-kb plasmid pME2001 of the host. ψM1 DNA did not hybridize with chromosomal DNA of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum but it exhibited definite homology to total DNA of Methanobacterium wolfei.
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Meile, L., Jenal, U., Studer, D. et al. Characterization of ψM1, a virulent phage of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Marburg. Arch. Microbiol. 152, 105–110 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00456085
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00456085