Bacteriophage

Bacteriophage T7 (or the T7 phage) is a bacteriophage, a virus that infects susceptible bacterial cells, that is composed of DNA and infects most strains of Escherichia coli. Bacteriophage T7 has a lytic life cycle and several properties that make it an ideal phage for experimentation. T7 has a short life cycle of 17 min at 37˚C, i.e. the time from infection to the lysis of the host cell when new phage are released. Due to the short latent period most physiological studies are being conducted at 30˚C where infected cells lyse after 30 min. However, high fitness-strains of T7 have been isolated with a latent period of only ~11 min at 37˚C growing under optimal conditions in rich media results. This adapted phage can undergo an effective expansion of its population by more than 1013 in one hour of growth.