Some factors affecting the viability of freeze-thawed T4 bacteriophage

Abstract

SUMMARY Some effects of freeze-thawing on the T 4 bacteriophage have been studied. The results indicated that most of the inactivation of rapidly thawed samples was due to osmotic damage, whereas inactivation of slowly thawed samples appeared to be correlated with the eutectic temperature of the suspending medium. Peptone significantly increased the survival of slowly thawed T 4 phage. The particular constituents of peptone largely responsible for this protection were separated as two distinct peptide fractions, using G 25 Sephadex. This work has been supported in part by grants from the Medical Research Council and the Office of Naval Research under contract F61052–68-C-0041.