Characteristics of a Bacillus megaterium bacteriophage.

A bacteriophage which infects and lyses Bacillus megaterium ATCC 19213 was isolated from the soil. The phage produces lysis on nine strains of B, megaterium tested but did not lyse a Bacillus cereus or Bacillus licheniformis strain, nor any of eight Bacillus subtilis strains tested. Physical characteristics of the phage including morphology, size, thermal and pH stability, and buoyant density were examined. The nucleic acid is double-stranded DNA of mol. wt. 41.7 times 10 and 36 to 38.5 mol percent guanine plus cytosine (G+C).