Bacteriophage stocks prepared by the lysis of fluid bacterial cultures usually average 1O1O infectious particles per ml and rarely exceeded lO"/mI. A method of achieving higher virus concentrations than this is desirable. Luria( 1) suggested a modification of a method originally used by Hershey( 2 ) which under proper conditions gives a virus stock about 10 times as concentrated as those obtainable in fluid cultures. This method has been briefly described(3) and has been used successfully by Cohen(4) and by Marshak (5) for the preparation of purified phage suspensions. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the method in general terms and to point out those significant variables which should be investigated and controlled by anyone wishing to use the method with a new phage-host cell system. Materials and methods.In essence the method consists in the lysis of a dense suspension of the host bacterium by the phage in a thin agar layer which has been poured over a much thicker base layer of nutrient agar. When bacterial lysis is complete ,the upper agar layer is scraped from sthe plates and the phage is extracted with minimum amounts of broth. A sample experiment using coli phage T2r+ will illustrate the method. The basal agar contains 0.8% Difco nutrient broth, 0.5% NaCl and 1.5% agar. About *Aided by a grant from the Xational Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. This paper is the essence of a thesis submitted by M. Swanstrom in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.S. in the Graduate School of -4rts and Sciences of S e w York University.-1. Luria, S. E., Personal communication.
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