Induction of phage-like particles from a pathogenic strain of Vibrio parahaemolyticus by mitomycin C.

A rapid drop of absorbance of cell suspensions due to cell lysis was observed midway in cell growth of a pathogenic strain, Vibrio parahaemolyticus WP1, when the cells were incubated in a growth medium containing mitomycin C. We succeeded in isolating phage-like particles from the cell lysate, but not from that of the non-pathogenic strain, WP28. The purified particle has a clear-cut envelope and is hexagonal in shape with no tail. The size of particles is about 65 millimicrons on the diagonal and about 250 S. The particles contained one kind of protein of 45,000 dalton.