RESISTANCE TO LYSIS FROM WITHOUT IN BACTERIA INFECTED WITH T2 BACTERIOPHAGE

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Abstract
When bacteria are infected to give a multiplicity of the order of 200 T2 phage particles per cell, the ability of the bacteria to yield new phage is destroyed. At the same time the turbidity of the bacterial culture decreases rapidly, and for this reason the reaction to high multiplicity infection has been called lysis from without. When bacteria are first infected at low multiplicity with T2 phage, they become resistant to lysis from without when superinfected at high multiplicity since they are able to yield new phage. By using strains of T2 with different genetic markers for the first infection and the superinfection, it was found that the superinfecting phage can participate in growth within those bacteria which have become resistant to lysis from without. The frequency of genetically mixed bursts which is a measure of the growth of the second phage is related directly to the multiplicity of superinfecting phage and inversely to the interval of time between the 2 infections.