Ultrastructure and Life Cycle of the Lipid-containing Bacteriophage 6

Abstract

An electron microscopic study of the lipid-containing bacteriophage φ6 revealed an electron dense compact inner core of 30 nm in diam., which apparently contains the nucleic acid of the virus. This inner particle is surrounded by a complex poly-hedral capsid with an outer diam. of 50 nm. Outside this is the envelope, which gives the virus a total diam. of 65 to 75 nm. The envelope, which has a thickness of a unit membrane, could be removed by treating the phage with Triton X-100. A definite structure is seen inside the envelope of the phage tail.