Biophysical characterization of Vitrio El Tor typing phage e5

Abstract

Vibrio cholerae typing phage e5, which can lyse only the El Tor strains of V. cholerae, was characterized. The phage had a polyhedral head 51 nm in diameter and a short tail 13 nm in length. It contained 13 structural polypeptides, with the molecular mass of the major component being 50 kDa. Phage chromosome comprised a 38.5-kb linear double-stranded DNA molecule with unique termini, as determined by restriction fragment analysis and electron microscopy, and had a G+C content of 35.5%. A physical map was constructed with the restriction endonucleases HaeII and HpaII. Adsorption of the phage to its host followed a biphasic kinetics and its intracellular growth was characterized by a latent period of 15 min and a burst size of 100 particles per infected cell. The phage was found to be moderately thermotolerant.