Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Journal of Hygiene logoLink to The Journal of Hygiene
. 1972 Sep;70(3):459–464. doi: 10.1017/s002217240006304x

Osmotic injury in rapidly thawed T4 bacteriophage

P R M Steele
PMCID: PMC2130199  PMID: 4506994

Abstract

Osmotic injury in frozen-thawed T4 phage was caused by the sudden and large fall in the electrolyte concentration of the unfrozen aqueous phase during rapid thawing of frozen samples. In accordance with the classical interpretation of osmotic shock it was found that DNA was quantitatively liberated from T4 phage inactivated by the osmotic injury of rapid thawing.

The degree of inactivation of osmotically shocked T4 phage was temperature dependent, being much increased by lowering the temperature, but was independant of the pH of the suspending medium. The T4Bo osmotic shock-resistant phage was refractory to the osmotic injury of rapid thawing.

Full text

PDF
459

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. ANDERSON T. F. The morphology and osmotic properties of bacteriophage systems. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1953;18:197–203. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1953.018.01.030. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BURTON K. A study of the conditions and mechanism of the diphenylamine reaction for the colorimetric estimation of deoxyribonucleic acid. Biochem J. 1956 Feb;62(2):315–323. doi: 10.1042/bj0620315. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. HERSHEY A. D., CHASE M. Independent functions of viral protein and nucleic acid in growth of bacteriophage. J Gen Physiol. 1952 May;36(1):39–56. doi: 10.1085/jgp.36.1.39. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. KAISER A. D., HOGNESS D. S. The transformation of Escherichia coli with deoxyribonucleic acid isolated from bacteriophage lambda-dg. J Mol Biol. 1960 Dec;2:392–415. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(60)80050-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. KLEINSCHMIDT A. K., LANG D., JACHERTS D., ZAHN R. K. [Preparation and length measurements of the total desoxyribonucleic acid content of T2 bacteriophages]. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1962 Dec 31;61:857–864. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Le Pecq J. B., Paoletti C. A new fluorometric method for RNA and DNA determination. Anal Biochem. 1966 Oct;17(1):100–107. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(66)90012-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Leibo S. P., Mazur P. Effect of osmotic shock and low salt concentration on survival and density of bacteriophages T4B and T4Bo1. Biophys J. 1966 Nov;6(6):747–772. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(66)86693-6. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Leibo S. P., Mazur P. Freezing of bacteriophage T4: temperature and rate effects as a function of salt concentration. Virology. 1969 Aug;38(4):558–566. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(69)90176-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. PANIJEL J., HUPPERT J., BARBU E. Effets de la congélation sur lès bactériophages. Ann Inst Pasteur (Paris) 1957 Aug;93(2):183–193. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Steele P. R., Davies J. D., Greaves R. I. Some factors affecting the viability of freeze-thawed T4 bacteriophage. II. The influence of certain electrolytes on the degree of inactivation. J Hyg (Lond) 1969 Dec;67(4):679–690. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400042133. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Steele P. R., Davies J. D., Greaves R. I. Some factors affecting the viability of freeze-thawed T4 bacteriophage. J Hyg (Lond) 1969 Mar;67(1):107–114. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400041486. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Hygiene are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press

RESOURCES