Molecular cloning of .PHI.80 adsorption-inhibiting cor gene.

Abstract

It was reported that φ80 lysogens did not adsorb superinfecting phage φ80 and a gene responsible to the phenomenon was named cor (Kozyrev et al., 1982). We found that E. coli containing φ80 genome in lytic cycle also began to show resistance to superinfecting φ80 after 5min of infection. We cloned the cor gene and determined its nucleotide sequence. A putative cor gene product should be 92 amino acids long and have three hydrophobic cores and one hydrophilic region, indicating a possibility of membrane binding protein. The product may interact with φ80 receptor on inner- or outer-membrane of E. coli cells and inhibit the adsorption of superinfecting φ80. The cor gene is supposed to be transcribed from a unique promoter located close to the gene.