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Sensitivity of Intracellular Bacteriophage to Colicin CA42-E2

Department of Microbiology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5001

ABSTRACT

Treatment of Escherichia coli K-12 infected by CIts857 with colicin CA42-E2 resulted in partial inhibition of the infectious process. Uninfected bacteria were killed by colicin with a probability of about five times that with which similarly treated -infected bacteria lose plaque-forming ability. The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), when present in a bacterial cell either as the replicating DNA of infectious phage or as the nonreplicating DNA of superinfecting phage, was degraded to acid-soluble material after colicin treatment. Analysis of the intermediates of DNA breakdown has revealed that degradation of the DNA to acid-soluble material is preceded by endonucleolytic fragmentation of the chromosome at a limited number of sites. This is the same mechanism of degradation previously observed for E. coli DNA after colicin treatment.

¹ Present address: Dept. of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif. 94304.