The 6.5 kb cryptic plasmid pC165st from Streptococcus thermophilus NDI-6, a strain isolated from the Indian fermented milk dahi, was subcloned and sequenced. Five putative ORFs were identified. ORFl could encode a 315 aa polypeptide almost identical to the RepA protein of previously sequenced 5. thermophilus plasmids, indicating that pC165st is one of the pC194 group of small Gram-positive rolling-circle plasmids. ORFs 2 and 4 were virtually identical and could specify proteins of approximately 150 aa with significant similarity to the small heat-shock proteins described from a variety of Grampositive bacteria. ORF3 could encode a 415 aa protein similar to enolase, an enzyme involved in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. ORF5 could encode a 412 aa protein which had high similarity to the HsdS (specificity) proteins of type I restriction-modif ication systems. Variants of strain NDI-6 which lacked pC165st were readily isolated after subculture of the parent strain a t 32 OC. The plasmid-bearing parent culture was significantly more resistant to a temperature shift from 42 "C to 62 "C than its plasmid-free variant and expressed proteins which corresponded with the predicted translation products from ORF2 and ORF4. In addition, plasmid-free mutants were lysed in broth by bacteriophages to which the parent culture was resistant.