Phage Acm1-mediated transduction in the facultatively methanol-utilizing Acetobacter methanolicus MB 58/4.

Phage Acm1, generally virulent for the acidophilic facultatively methanol-utilizing strain of Acetobacter methanolicus MB 58/4, is also capable of lysogenizing its host strain at a low rate. Using amino acid-auxotrophic mutants of A. methanolicus MB 58/4 as recipient strains, transduction of His, Leu and Tyr markers could be demonstrated in this system. The ability to prepare transducing lysates by propagation of phage Acm1 on the prototrophic donor strain A. methanolicus MB 58/4, the transduction of three different markers as well as the efficiency of transduction, and the occurrence of permutations in the phage genome indicate that phage Acm1 mediates generalized transduction. Phage Acm1 might be a useful tool in genetic studies of methylotrophic A. methanolicus.