The Effect of Cell Size on the Burst Size of T4 Bacteriophage Infections of Escherichia coli B23

Previous experiments have shown that individual bacteriophage infections of Escherichia coli cells have burst sizes ranging from a few phage to hundreds of phage. It was proposed that larger cells have more cellular machinery and can therefore support higher rates of phage production resulting in larger burst sizes. The effect of cell size on the ability of T4 bacteriophage to replicate and lyse from E. coli cells was investigated. E. coli B23 cells were separated to size by centrifugation using 30% (w/v) sucrose and the single burst experiment was performed on the bacteria extracted from the top and bottom of the bands after centrifugation and on a mixed sample of mid-log phase E. coli B23 cells. E. coli B23 cells were successfully separated by size and results of the single burst experiment indicate that cell size has an effect on the burst size resulting from T4 bacteriophage infection of E. coli B23 cells.