Quantitative comparison of the RNA bacteriophage Qβ infection cycle in rich and minimal media

As bacteriophages are dependent on the host for multiplication, their infection cycle is expected to be influenced by the host’s physiological state. To elucidate how and which steps of the bacteriophage infection cycle are influenced by changes in the physiological state of the host, we quantitatively compared the infection cycle of lytic RNA bacteriophage Qβ in Escherichia coli cultured in rich and minimal media. The adsorption rate constants in both media were almost the same. A difference of 15 min in the latent period and an approximately twofold increase in the rate of phage release were observed, although approximately 10⁵ molecules of coat proteins, equivalent to approximately 600–1000 phage particles, accumulated in an infected cell prior to burst. Addition of Mg²⁺ to minimal medium markedly affected the Qβ infection cycle, and these results suggest that Mg²⁺ is required for the stages of the infectious cycle after adsorption.