Illegitimate recombination at the replication origin of bacteriophage M13.

Abstract

Hybrids composed of phage M13 and plasmid pHV33 were used to study the formation of deletions in Escherichia coli. Eighty to ninety percent of the deletion endpoints were at the position of the nick introduced into the M13 replication origin by the phage gene II protein. This suggests the existence of a novel mechanism of illegitimate recombination.