INFECTION BY BACTERIOPHAGE T5 AND ITS INTRACELLULAR GROWTH—A STUDY BY COMPLEMENT FIXATION

Abstract

The progress of infection of Escherichia coli, strain B, by phage T5 can be interrupted by treatment of the infected bacteria in a Waring blendor early after phage adsorption. The proportion of bacteria in which infection can be arrested by blending decreases slowly with time. Incorporation of phage P into the bacteria, as measured by nonremovability of P by blending, is also slow. P incorporation and establishment of blendor-resistant infection are both strongly inhibited at high bacterial concn. In all cases, blending removes from infected bacteria practically all the complement-fixing antigen of the adsorbed phage in noninfectious form. New phage antigen appears within infected bacteria a few min. before infectious phage and continues until lysis to increase at a faster rate than infectious phage. Phage lysates contain at least 1/2 their phage antigen in noninfectious form.