Packaging of Multiple Copies of Reduced-size Genomic Segments by Bacteriophage Phi 6

Bacteriophage phi 6 has a genome of three segments of double-stranded RNA enclosed in a polyhedral procapsid. The preformed procapsid is capable of packaging plus-strand transcripts of the genomic segments in an in vitro reaction. Packaging of individual segments is dependent upon unique packaging sequences of about 300 nucleotides near the 5' ends of the segments. We have prepared segments L, M, and S with internal deletions that decrease their size by as much as sixfold without affecting either their packaging sequences or their 3' ends. Although packaging of genomic segments is normally very precise, with only one of each in a procapsid, these smaller segments are packaged in multiples such that the total number of nucleotides for each segment class approaches that of the normal genomic segment.