Bacteriophages used in this work.

aPhage φJA1 isolated from sewage lyses multiple Y. pestis strains but not Y. pseudotuberculosis or E. coli K-12; it has some degree of homology to L-413C because its DNA is amplified in qPCR with one of two tested pairs of primers specific for L-413C (A.A. Filippov, Y. He, and K.V. Sergueev, unpublished data).bBacterial Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Disease, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA.cSection of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.dNA, not applicable.eT7Yp is a T7 host range mutant isolated on the lawn of Y. pestis CO92; T7Yp produces plaques on Y. pestis but not on Y. pseudotuberculosis or Yersinia enterocolitica and has a low plaquing efficiency on E. coli K-12 (A.A. Filippov, Y. He, and K.V. Sergueev, unpublished data).fND, not determined.gKazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan.hR phage (R stands for “Russian” [12]) was originally isolated and studied by R.I. Kotlyarova [64] and is also designated as the Kotlyarova phage. Pseudotuberculosis diagnostic phages PST [63] and R [15] can lyse 92–100% of Y. pseudotuberculosis strains but are also active against the majority of Y. pestis strains.