Preliminary characterization of a group of actinophages of the thermophilic actinomycete genus Saccharomonospora.

The comparison of the Saccharomonospora phages phi SaC1, phi SaG1, phi SaV1, phi SaV2, phi SaV3, and Tm1 demonstrated that they all belong to a single group of closely related actinophages: they were similar with regard to host range, virion mophology (B1 type), genome length (43-45 kb), and GC content of their genomes (63, 3% G + C). Furthermore, DNA-DNA hybridization showed that the phage genomes had a high degree of homology to each other. The phages are, therefore, proposed as representatives of a new bacteriophage species in the sense of the ICTV.