Inverted duplication in the genome of the temperate Streptomyces phage SH3

Inverted repeats in the DNA of Streptomyces plasmids pMG110 and pMG120

Two cryptic plasmids pMG110 (10.5 kb) and pMG120 (14.5 kb) isolated from Streptomyces luteolutescens were cleaved by restriction endonucleases Bg/II, KpnI, and SalGI. A physical map was constructed for pMG110. After denaturation and intrastrand reannealing, two types of snap-back structures were identified by electron microscopy, differing in the size of the loop (type 1, 1 kb; type 2, 1.6 kb), whereas the stem of both structures was about 190 bp long. Stem-loop structures of similar size were also observed in pMG120. In rare cases, both types of elements were present on the same DNA molecule. The analysis of Bg/II- and KpnI-generated fragments allowed the localization of the elements at two alternative positions on the physical map of pMG110.

Properties of Streptomyces phage SLE111

Phage SLE111 infecting Streptomyces levoris 1331 was morphological different from most actinophages described and yielded very high titres (10(11) p.f.u/ml) after lytic growth. Typical morphological changes of infected hyphae were observed by phase contrast and electron microscopy of ultrathin sections. The double-stranded, linear DNA (44.2 +/- 1.3 kb) was characterized, according to electron microscopic analysis, by absence of cohesive ends, of terminal redundance, and circular permutation. A stem-loop structure containing inverted repeats of about 200 bp was identified by electron microscopy in two alternative positions in the SLE111 genome.