Quantitative studies on some mycobacterial phage-host systems.

Within the last decade, several bacteriophages have been isolated (Gardner and Weiser, 1947; Whittaker, 1950; Hnatko, 1954; Froman et al., 1954) which possess lytic and virus-reproducing activity on saprophytic and pathogenic mycobacteria. Investigations of the mycobacteriophages (Hnatko, 1953; Froman et al., 1955; Hnatko, 1956) have largely dealt with phagetyping and mycobacterial classification. A survey of the literature has failed to reveal data which quantitatively define mycobacterial phage-host relationships. The recent discovery of phage D29 (Froman et al., 1954) made available a suitable phage-host system for such studies. The object of this study, therefore, is to present standard quantitative bacteriophage techniques to establish such undefined characteristics as adsorption behavior, latent period and burst size of the mycobacterium-phage system.