[Intervariant transduction in Bacillus thuringiensis].

This report deals with intervariant transduction in strains of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp, dendrolimus and galleriae with bacteriophage Tg13. This bacteriophage has a broad host range and is of a large DNA molecular mass (40.3 mD). Transducing properties of this bacteriophage were studied in Bacillus thuringiensis var. galleriae using auxotrophic mutants requiring purine and pyrimidine bases or tryptophan as recipients. The frequency of transduction was 10(-5)-10(-6). In order to prove the possibility of intervariant transduction, two series of experiments have been conducted. In the first case, bacteriophage tg13 has been propagated on the prototrophic strain 49-18 (var. dendrolimus), 48gua (var. galleriae) being used as a recipient. In the second case, the prototrophic strain 69-6 (var. galleriae) served as a donor and 49-18-1 trp (var. dendrolimus) - as a recipient. The frequency of heterologous transduction was 10(-7). The positive result obtained in cross-transduction experiments may be explained by common metabolic pathways of purine and pyrimidine bases and amino acids in strains of different serotypes.