Virginia Tech/phage

λ phage is the viral component in our biological system that we used to test our model. We chose λ phage because it has been characterized and studied for decades. λ phage is also very stable and relatively easy to work with. We had a lot to learn since no one on the team had ever worked with λ phage before.

Before we started working with phage (WT and Fluorescent), we decided that we should start by reading as much as we could about lab procedures dealing with phages. Thus, we spent the first week of the summer reading numerous protocols on how to multiply phage in plates and in liquid culture. We also had to learn how to work with the Fluorescent λ phage that was sent to us from the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. The phage was provided by Phillippe Thomen and is characterized in "Propagation of fluorescent viruses in growing plaques" by Alvarez LJ, Thomen P, Makushok T, Chatenay D.

E.coli infected with fluorescent phage. This cell is lytic: the green spots are new phage particles being constructed prior to lysis.