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

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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.