Study of a bacteriophage infecting the myxobacterium Chondrococcus columnaris.

Lysed areas suggestive of phage activity were observed on a plate in the course of isolation of a strain of Chondrococcus columnaris from trout at the Fisheries Center of the University of Washington. C. columnaris is an aquatic fruiting myxobacterium responsible for epizootics in salmonid and other fishes (Ordal and Rucker, 1944). Subsequently a bacteriophage was isolated which infected and lysed this particular strain of C. columnaris. Up to this time bacteriophages have not been reported for members of either the Myxobacteriales or the Spirochaetales, the orders of flexible bacteria characterized by the absence of rigid cell walls. In view of the basic difference in structure of the eubacteria and the myxobacteria, a study was undertaken to compare the properties of the myxophage with those of the well studied eubacterial phages. For this purpose a system for a quantitative assay of myxophages had to be developed.