A cloned replicon of Saccharopolyspora phages JHJ-1 and JHJ-3 is stably maintained as a plasmid in various actinomycetes.

A replicon of phage JHJ-1 (and JHJ-3) was cloned. The autonomously replicating phage element was maintained as a medium-copy-number shuttle plasmid in many actinomycetes, and was efficiently transmitted to spores without antibiotic selection. One gene was shown to be expressed in a vector containing the JHJ-3 replicon.