Isolation and Properties of a Dna-Containing Rod-Shaped Bacteriophage

Abstract

A male-specific coliphage, designated AE2, has been isolated from Adelaide sewage. It is a flexible rod, about 8000 A in length and about 50 A in diameter, and was shown to be similar in most physical, chemical, and biological properties to those reported for bacteriophages fl, fd, and M13. The phage contains 14· 0% by weight of DNA which has a base composition (moles %) of gnanine = 21 %, adenine = 26%" cytosine = 21 % and thymine = 32%, and its sedimentation coefficient at zero concentration, sgo,w' is 43.