Ether induced morphological alteration of Pf-1 filamentous phage

Abstract

BACTERIOPHAGES of filamentous structure have been isolated in several species of bacteria and all have similar physicochemical properties¹. They consist of single-stranded circular DNA and two species of proteins—A protein and B protein. They are released from infected cells without disintegrating the cells and are inactivated on exposure to chloroform although the presence of lipids in the virion has not been reported. During a study of Pf-1, a filamentous phage which propagated on strain K of Pseudomonas aeruginosa², we found that it is almost completely inactivated with ether, whereas phage fd and Xf are refractory to it. Ether sensitivity of the viruses is generally thought to be an indication of the presence of lipids in the virion. Pf-1 might, therefore, be thought to contain lipids in its structure. We report here a study of the inactivation and morphological alteration of Pf-1 induced by ether and the results of chemical analysis of Pf-1 which suggest the absence of lipids in this virus.