For POLS Labs Plaque assays with bacteriophage involve overlaying "bottom agar" with "top agar" that contains bacteriophage-infected host bacteria. This video will show you the technique for doing this with a single tube of infected bacteria.  In practice, you will likely set up infections of several tubes of bacteria using serially diluted bacteriophage sample. The … Continue reading Phage Discovery Guide: Plaque Assay Protocol

A good time to test for the presence of bacteriophage in your sample using this method is after you have collected your enriched isolation samples.  Rather than performing a plaque assay using serial dilutions, a spot test can be performed with just a single plate. The spot test can be used as a yes or no … Continue reading Phage Discovery Guide: Spot Tests

For POLS Labs In the direct isolation protocol, the goal is to determine whether any bacteriophage can be detected in an environmental sample that is directly added to the host bacterial strain, such as Mycobacterium smegmatis.  This method is different than the enriched isolation protocol because no replication of the virus is allowed to occur before mixing … Continue reading Phage Discovery Guide: Direct Isolation Protocol