Impairment of Temperate Bacteriophage Adsorption by Brief Treatment of Escherichia coli with Dilute Solutions of Ethylenediaminetetraacetate.

Protass, Jay J. (National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, Bethesda, Md.), and David Korn. Impairment of temperate bacteriophage adsorption by brief treatment of Escherichia coli with dilute solutions of ethylenediaminetetraacetate. J. Bacteriol. 91:143-147. 1966.-Cells of Escherichia coli K-12 treated for 2 min with 2 x 10(-4)m ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) are unable to adsorb the temperate bacteriophages lambdavir and 434 but show no impairment of their ability to adsorb T-even phages or T5. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that there are basic structural differences between the cell-wall receptors involved in the adsorption of the temperate and T classes of coliphages.