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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1968 October; 16(10): 1483-1488
Copyright © 1968 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Production of Bacteriophage T7

Microbiological Research Establishment, Porton, Wiltshire
Chester Beatty Research Institute, Institute of Cancer Research, Royal Cancer Hospital, London S.W. 3, England

ABSTRACT

Bacteriophage T7 was grown with Escherichia coli B as the host organism in 3- and 20-liter vessels. Under the best growth conditions devised, the yields of T7 in the culture lysates averaged 1.33 x 10¹² and 0.95 x 10¹² plaque-forming units per ml, respectively, compared with the best previously reported yields of 10¹¹ to 3 x 10¹¹ plaque-forming units per ml in 1-liter batches grown in the presence of air, or double this in similar batches grown in the presence of oxygen. The bacteriophage was purified by a simple method which gave average yields of 143 mg/liter and 131 mg/liter from the 3- and 20-liter batches, respectively. The efficiency of plating of the final material ranged from 18 to 42%. The purified bacteriophage is a convenient source of monodisperse deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecular weight of which is about 25 x 10⁶.