The role of temperate bacteriophage SP beta in prophage-mediated interference in Bacillus subtilis

Virulent bacteriophage phi 1 grows on a variety of Bacillus subtilis strains, mutants of this virus which abortively infect the transformable bacillus. B. subtilis 168, while retaining the ability to productively infect related bacteria have been found. In the present study, we demonstrate that the inability of one such variant, phi 1m, to develop normally in strain 168 is mediated by cryptic prophage SP beta. The latter is a temperate bacteriophage which is carried by B. subtilis 168 and most strains derived from this bacterium. Phi 1 m infection of SP beta lysogens begins with apparently normal adsorption, penetration, and inititaion of virus-directed syntheses. At about the 20th min of the latent period, however, there is an abrupt cessation of nucleic acid synthesis and cellular respiration, accompanied by a change in cell permeability. This course of events can be altered to a permissive infection by mutation in the mpi gene of SP beta, by mutation in the spoOA gene of the host, or by growing SP beta lysogens at high temperature. In addition, we found a second class of phi 1 mutants which abortively infect B. subtilis 168 derivatives even in the absence of the SP beta prophage.