Isolation and Characterization of a Generalized Transducing Phage for the Marine Luminous Bacterium Vibrio fischeri MJ-1

Summary: A marine bacteriophage active against the marine luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri MJ-1 was isolated from offshore waters in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, and was shown to be active in generalized transduction, transducing 14 of 17 different amino acid auxotrophs to prototrophy. For some of the amino acid auxotrophic markers, such as arginine and methionine, several different mutants could be transduced. The phage grew well at temperatures up to 27 °C, and produced high-titre lysates (1010 p.f.u. ml-1 or higher). Single-step growth analysis showed a latent period of 23 min at 25 °C with a burst size of 100. Phage adsorption was maximum at NaCl concentrations characteristic of the marine environment. No evidence for lysogeny was found.