TITLE	Mechanism of host cell death induced by infection of Escherichia coli with the c2 clear-plaque mutant of phage f1
AUTHOR	Shan-Hua Lin Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China Wen-Ping Chen Department of Botany, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China Tsong-Teh Kuo Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China
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ABSTRACT	The c2 clear-plaque mutant arose spontaneously from the turbid plaque-inducing wild-type strain of bacteriophage f1. The mechanism of host cell death induced by infection of Escherichia coli with c2 has now been investigated. A marked decrease in cell membrane potential was apparent as early as 30 min after infection with c2, and leakage of cell contents was apparent after 4 h. Transmission electron microscopy also revealed the accumulation of granular membrane-like structures within cells at early stages of c2 infection. Electrophoretic analysis showed that the abundance of several bacterial outer membrane proteins was markedly reduced 2 h after infection with c2. Furthermore, substantial amounts of the phage coat protein (gpVIII) and single-stranded DNA-binding protein (gpV) were apparent in the inner membrane of c2-infected cells 2 h after infection. These data support the hypothesis that the death of c2-infected cells results from phage-induced damage to the bacterial cell membrane.
KEYWORD	Cell death; Clear plaque; Escherichia coli; Filamentous phage f1;
ARTICLE INFO	Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 42 Number 1 January 2001, page 45-52, 8 pages
PUBLISHER	Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China