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.