Characterization of bacteriophages fromtox-containing, non-toxigenic isolates ofCorynebacterium diphtheriae

Non-toxigenic strains ofCorynebacterium diphtheriaecontinue to cause disease within immunized populations. A subset of these corynebacteria carry the diphtheria toxin gene but in a cryptic form. To determine whether such strains might contribute to the re-emergence of functional toxin genes, the phages andtoxmutations within three clone types were examined.tox-containing, β-related phages were isolated from two of the strain types. The third isolate appeared to harbour a defective prophage. One of thetox⁻phages encoded truncated, yet enzymatically-active, forms of diphtheria toxin, suggesting that it had sustained a point mutation within the latter half of its toxin gene. In contrast, the other mutant phage did not elicit the production of either a cross-reacting material or an ADP-ribosylating activity. Complementation tests employing a series of double lysogens confirmed that the mutations responsible for the non-toxigenic phenotype of all of the phages werecisdominant. Given these findings, it is reasonable to hypothesize thattox⁺genes can arise within human populations by either homologous recombination between two distincttox⁻phages or spontaneous reversion within a single mutant allele.