Bacteriophage Ecology Group
Reference Abstracts (1956)
Dedicated to the ecology and evolutionary biology of the parasites of unicellular organisms (UOPs)
© Stephen T. Abedon
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© Phage et al. last updated on Wednesday, December 26, 2001
  1. Frequency distribution of phage release in the one-step growth experiment. Adams, M.H., Wassermann, F. (1956). Virology 2:96-108. Phage release as a function of time in the one-step growth experiment is a close approximation to the integral of a normal frequency distribution. This suggests that the frequencies of bacterial lysis are normally distributed about a mean latent period. The use of the probit method to plot the data of the one-step growth experiment furnishes a sensitive method for studying nonrandom heterogeneity in a population of phage infected bacteria. Several examples of such nonrandome heterogeneity are presented and discussed. [TOP OF PAGE]

  2. ??? Atkinson, N., Bullas, L.R. (1956). Autral. J. Exp. Biol. Med. Sci. 34:461-??? [TOP OF PAGE]

  3. Bacteriophage. Boyd, J.S.K. (1956). Biol. Rev. 31:71-107. [TOP OF PAGE]

  4. The effect of L-tryptophan on thermal lability of bacteriophage T4,38. Cheng, P.-Y. (1956). Biochim. Biophys. Acta 22:433-442. 1. It has been shown that L-tryptophan at a concentration of 10-8 M decreases the thermal stability of phage T4,38 (a strain of T4 which requires either L-tryptophan, L-tyrosine or L-phenylalanine as cofactor for adsorption) with loss of some phage DNA.¶2. No tryptophan effect is observed with phages which do not require any cofactor for adsorption. The effect on T4,38 is obtained also with L-tyrosine or DL-phenyalanine replacing L-tryptophan, but not with 15 other amino acids (including D-tryptophan). Thus the adsorption requirement and the effect on thermal stability show the same specificity.¶3. The kinetics of the inactivation have been studied as a function of L-tryptophan concentration. The results suggest that one molecule of tryptophan adsorbing at a critical site is sufficient to destabilize a virus particle.¶4. The rate of inactivation is strongly temperature-dependent. This indicates that a marked configurational change occurs in the process.¶The results of similar studies on the DNA liberation show that this process may also be caused by the binding of one tryptophan molecule to the virus particle and that the binding also has the same amino acid specificity as the adsorption cofactor phenomenon. Thus binding sites of the same kind are presumably involved in these three processes: activation for adsorption, thermal inactivation and DNA liberation. A major configuration change is inferred to occur in each of these processes.¶6. The results of the present study, therefore, support the "denaturation" theory for the adsorption cofactor phenomenon. They also suggest that an active center of an enzyme could involve as few as two or three functional groups and that a biologically functional structure in vivo may well have different activity from that in vitro.¶7. The possibility of using the present tryptophan effect as a convenient assay fro L-tryptophan is discussed. [TOP OF PAGE]

  5. Host-phage relationship of cheese starter organisms. Czulak, J., Naylor, J. (1956). Journal of Dairy Research 23:120-133. [TOP OF PAGE]

  6. Separation of small infective components of MEF1 poliomyelitis and horsesickness viruses by migration into agar gel. Polson, A. (1956). Biochim. Biophys. Acta 19:53-57. [TOP OF PAGE]

  7. THE EFFECT OF UREA ON CO-FACTOR REQUIRING PHAGE. Sato, G.H. (1956). California Institute of Technology. [TOP OF PAGE]

  8. Activation of bacteriophage by urea. Sato, G.H. (1956). Science 123:891-892. [TOP OF PAGE]

  9. The typing of Escherichia coli by bacteriophage: Its application in the study of E. coli population of the intestinal tract of healthy calves and of calves suffering from white scours. Smith, H.W., Crabb, W.E. (1956). J. Gen. Microbiol. 15:556-574. [TOP OF PAGE]

  10. THE EFFECT OF ANAEROBIOSIS ON PHAGE SYNTHESIS BY ESCHERICHIA COLI. Taussig, A. (1956). MCGILL UNIVERSITY (CANADA). [TOP OF PAGE]

  11. Some observations on the coli/coliphage relationship in sewage. Ware, G.C., Mellon, M.A. (1956). J. Hygiene, Cambridge 54:99-101. [TOP OF PAGE]

  12. ??? Youngner, J.S. (1956). J. Immunol. 76:288 [TOP OF PAGE]

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