Abstract
CELLS of Bacillus megatherium strain 1.0 can carry on metabolic activity, including multiplication, simultaneously with virus formation, for an infinite time; this balance between the cells and their virus is called lysogenesis. Evidence that lysogenic Bac. megatherium strain 1.0 can return to the normal uninfected state on a glucose nutrient medium was presented by Ehrlich and Watson1. Further study of this phenomenon showed that other sources of carbon, such as fructose, maltose, sucrose, glycerol, pyruvate and succinate in the basal medium all cause recovery from the lysogenic state. In postulating an explanation for this behaviour, it was thought that the virus and the source of carbon might compete for organic phosphate and that the virus was the weaker competitor. The work of Kozloff and Putnam suggested such a hypothesis2. However, initial studies showed that this hypothesis could not explain the effect of glucose on lysogenic Bac. megatherium strain 1.0.
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References
Ehrlich, H. L., and Watson, D. W., J. Bact., 58, 627 (1949).
Kozloff, L. M., and Putnam, F. W., J. Biol. Chem., 182, 229 (1950).
Dickens, F., and Glock, G. E., Nature, 166, 33 (1950).
Racker, E., Fed. Proc., 7, 180 (1948).
Marmur, J., and Schlenk, F., Arch. Biochem., 31, 154 (1951).
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EHRLICH, H., KNIGHT, S. Glucose and Lysogenesis in Bacillus megatherium. Nature 168, 658 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168658a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/168658a0
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