HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Watanabe, K. Articles by Takesue, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Watanabe, K. Articles by Takesue, S. Agricola Articles by Watanabe, K. Articles by Takesue, S.

Use of L-rhamnose to Study Irreversible Adsorption of Bacteriophage PL-1 to a Strain of Lactobacillus casei

Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

L-rhamnose has been found to be useful to investigate the process of irreversible adsorption of PL-1 phage to its host bacterium, Lactobacillus casei ATCC27092. L-rhamnose inhibited phage adsorption to cells without inactivating free phages. Adsorption inhibition was correlated with the concentrations of L-rhamnose. The inhibitory effect of L-rhamnose on phage adsorption was of a competitive nature against host cells. Among other saccharides tested, L-fucose, L-mannose and D-ribose showed a slight degree of adsorption-inhibiting activity.

In early stages of phage adsorption in a tris-maleate buffer, where the binding of phages to cells was still reversible, addition of L-rhamnose resulted in the partial desorption of phages from the cells to which they had adsorbed. However, the number of infective phages desorbed by L-rhamnose treatment gradually fell off as incubation continued, showing that the phages became firmly bound to the cells. Therefore, it is possible to determine the number of phages irreversibly adsorbed to cells by using this desorption technique with L-rhamnose. The process of irreversible phage adsorption, that is, the formation of phage-cell complexes from which no more infective phages could be desorbed, was dependent on temperature and strongly inhibited at 0 °C.

Received 18 November 1974; accepted 3 March 1975.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. O. Kilic, S. I. Pavlova, S. Alpay, S. S. Kilic, and L. Tao Comparative Study of Vaginal Lactobacillus Phages Isolated from Women in the United States and Turkey: Prevalence, Morphology, Host Range, and DNA Homology Clin. Vaccine Immunol., January 1, 2001; 8(1): 31 - 39. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]