Purification of B. megatherium Phage G and Evidence for a Muralytic Enzyme as an Integral Part of the Phage

The Purification Of B. megatherium G phage is described and it is shown that DEAE cellulose chromatography combined with conventional methods gave a phage preparation which was at least 95 per cent pure, and contained 2.16 microg nitrogen/10(11) infective particles. The phage particle weight in molecular weight units was 91 x 10(6). The small amount of contaminating material appeared to represent phage "ghosts." An essentially 1:1 ratio of particles to infective units was found when data from electron microscopic counts or data from chemical analysis were related to phage infectivity. Comparison, by several methods, of the G phage and coliphage T2 shows that T2 is 2.6 times larger than G phage. The specific activity of the muralytic component obtained by disintegration of phage preparations with urea was unchanged by the purification indicating that the phage-"bound" muralytic activity is an integral part of the phage structure.