Morphological features of a filamentous phage of Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal

A filamentous phage was isolated from carrier strain AI-1841 of Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal and thus was termed fs phage. The phage was measured to be approximately 1 μm in length and 6 nm in width. One end of the phage was slightly tapered and had a fibrous appendage. The plaques developed on strain AI-4450 of V. cholerae O139 were small and turbid. The phage grew in strain AI-4450 and reached a size of 10⁸ to 10⁹ pfu/ml at 5 hr after infection without inducing any lysis of the host bacteria. The group of phages attached on rod-shaped materials like fimbriae of this bacteria, with their fibrous appendages at the pointed end, were often found in the phage-infected culture. The anti-fimbrial serum effectively inhibited the infection of fs phage to the host strain AI-4450. We thus concluded that the phage can be adsorbed on fimbriae with a fibrous appendage on the pointed end of the phage filament.