Bacteriophage T4 can produce progeny virions in extremely slowly growing Escherichia coli host: comparison of a mathematical model with the experimental data.

Development of bacteriophage T4 depends on the physiological state of its host cell. Based on previous studies performed under laboratory conditions with different media determining various growth rates of Escherichia coli, a mathematical model was developed which suggested that phage T4 development cannot proceed efficiently in bacteria growing with a doubling time longer than 160 min. Contrary to this prediction, using a chemostat culture system allowing for culturing E. coli at different growth rates without changes in the medium composition, we found that T4 can yield progeny in host cells growing with a doubling time as long as 21 h. Our results indicate that the actual limiting growth rate of the host culture for the development of phage T4 is about 0.033 h(-1) , corresponding to the doubling time of about 21 h.