Abstract
PHAGE fr (formerly ft 5 (ref. 1)) in its characteristics2 is related to f-phages described by Loeb and Zinder3. For the initiation of genetical studies, attempts were made to obtain mutants from phage-suspensions treated with nitrous acid. Conditions of treatment were essentially those described by Schuster and Schramm4. Single-hit kinetics of inactivation was established over a range of 5 logarithmic cycles. Standard phage techniques5 were used. Since the rate of inactivation is exponential in relation to the time of incubation in nitrous acid, the inactivation is characterized by the ‘reduced time’ τ= e−1. When suspensions of fr were inactivated at 37° C and pH 4.28 by 0.5 M sodium nitrite, τ equalled 3.5 min. A comparison with the rates of inactivation by nitrous acid as reported for other viruses is shown in Table 1. It demonstrates that the τ of inactivation of phage fr is more closely of the order of the τ of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) than that of DNA-phages.
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References
Knolle, P., and Kaudewitz, F., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 9, 208 (1962).
Hoffmann-Berling, H. (in the press).
Loeb, T., and Zinder, N., Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., 47, 282 (1961).
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Adams, M., Bacteriophages (Interscience Pub., New York, 1959).
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Tessman, I., Virology, 9, 375 (1959).
Mundry, K. W., and Gierer, A., Z. Vererbungslehre, 89, 614 (1958).
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KAUDEWITZ, F., KNOLLE, P. Plaque-size Mutants obtained from the Ribonucleic Acid Phage fr after Treatment with Nitrous Acid. Nature 198, 97 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/198097a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/198097a0
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