Produce High-Titer T-Series Coliphages Without Setting Up an Aeration System

• Practice aseptic technique
• Demonstrate cell damage caused by viral infection
• Materials for six lab groups
• Time Required: ~90 minutes over 3 days

Introduce students to the lytic mode of a bacteriophage life cycle. Or you can use the serial dilution technique to explore the concept of bacteriophage titer, which is the concentration of infectious virus particles per milliliter of suspension fluid. The simple procedure involves a serial dilution of the bacteriophage stock followed by the double agar overlay technique. The kit comes with all necessary materials including E. coli B and coliphage T4r cultures, and study guide.