Genetics and Genomics of Bacteriophages

Abstract

Early studies on the antigenic properties of bacteriophages have been reviewed by d'Herelle (1926) and Burnet, Keogh, and Lush (1937). The latter reference gives an excellent dis-cussion of the mechanism of the antigen-antibody reaction from the kinetic viewpoint and, in addition, contains much experimental material which has not been published elsewhere. Bordet and Ciuca (1921) first demonstrated that injection of rabbits with phage lysates stimulates the production of phage-neutralizing antibody. Their antisera also contained aggluti-nins for the host bacterium. The injection of host bacteria, however, failed to stimulate the production of phage-neutraliz-ing antibody. Otto and Winkler -(1922) were able to remove all bacterial agglutinins by absorption with host bacteria with-out affecting the antiphage properties of the serum. These findings demonstrated that phage is antigenically distinct from its host. I t was early recognized that antiphage sera had considerable specificity, inactivating the homologous and some heterologous strains of phage but not others. The fact that serological re-lationship was correlated with other properties of bacterio-I phages was not generally appreciated, however, until the taxo-nornic work of Burnet and Asheshov. Since these early experiments it has been found that the ac-tivity of antiphage antibodies is not confined to neutralization. The addition of a sufficiently concentrated suspension of phage particles to homologaus antiserum results in visible aggregation of the virus particles followed by settling of the clumps as a precipitate. By suitable ultrafiltration methods one can sep-97