| Summary: | Here we present the characterization of a <i>Francisella</i> bacteriophage (vB_<i>FhiM</i>_KIRK) including the morphology, the genome sequence and the induction of the prophage. The prophage sequence (FhaGI-1) has previously been identified in <i>F. hispaniensis</i> strain 3523. UV radiation induced the prophage to assemble phage particles consisting of an icosahedral head (~52 nm in diameter), a tail of up to 97 nm in length and a mean width of 9 nm. The double stranded genome of vB_<i>FhiM</i>_KIRK contains 51 open reading frames and is 34,259 bp in length. The genotypic and phylogenetic analysis indicated that this phage seems to belong to the <i>Myoviridae</i> family of bacteriophages. Under the conditions tested here, host cell (<i>Francisella hispaniensis</i> 3523) lysis activity of KIRK was very low, and the phage particles seem to be defective for infecting new bacterial cells. Nevertheless, recombinant KIRK DNA was able to integrate site-specifically into the genome of different <i>Francisella</i> species after DNA transformation.
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