General transducing phages like Salmonella phage P22 isolated using a smooth strain of Escherichia coli as host

A smooth colony strain, resistant to phages lambda and P22, was isolated from sewage and identified as Escherichia coli (strain H). Four temperate phages plaquing on strain H were isolated from sewage. The archetype, HK620, does not plaque on strains C and K12 of E. coli nor on the LT2 strain of Salmonella enterica. Bacterial mutants resistant to a clear plaque mutant of HK620 produce rough colonies. Some are also galactose-negative, a few are histidine auxotrophs, and most show sensitivity to lambda. HK620 can transduce a wide variety of auxotrophic mutants of E. coli H to prototrophy. It can recombine with lambda but its virions resemble those of P22. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.