Effectiveness of the lactococcal abortive infection systems AbiA, AbiE, AbiF and AbiG against P335 type phages.

Four lactococcal abortive infection mechanisms were introduced into strains which were sensitive hosts for P335 type phages and plaque assay experiments performed to assess their effect on five lactococcal bacteriophages from this family. Results indicate that AbiA inhibits all five P335 phages tested, while AbiG affects phiP335 itself and phiQ30 but not the other P335 species phages. AbiA was shown to retard phage Q30 DNA replication as previously reported for other phages. It was also demonstrated that AbiG, previously shown to act at a point after DNA replication in the cases of c2 type and 936 type phages, acts at the level of, or prior to phage Q30 DNA replication. AbiE and AbiF had no effect on the P335 type phages examined.