Model for bacteriophage T4 development in Escherichia coli

Mathematical relations for the number of mature T4 bacteriophages, both ins ide and after lysis of an Escherichia coli cell, as a function of time afte r infection by a single phage were obtained, with the following five parame ters: delay time until the first T4 is completed inside the bacterium (ecli pse period, v) and its standard deviation to), the rate at which the number of ripe T4 increases inside the bacterium during the rise period lex), and the time when the bacterium bursts (mu) and its standard deviation (beta). Burst size [B = alpha(mu - nu)], the number of phages released from an inf ected bacterium, is thus a dependent parameter. A least-squares program was used to derive the values of the parameters for a variety of experimental results obtained with wild-type T4 in E. coli B/r under different growth co nditions and manipulations (H. Hadas, M. Einav, I. Fishov, and A. Zaritsky, Microbiology 143:179-185, 1997). A "destruction parameter" (zeta) was adde d to take care of the adverse effect of chloroform on phage survival. The o verall agreement between the model and the experiment is quite good. The de pendence of the derived parameters on growth conditions can be used to pred ict phage development under other experimental manipulations.