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Methods for Bacteriophage Preservation

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 1693)

Abstract

In a view of growing interest in bacteriophages as the most abundant members of microbial communities and as antibacterial agents, reliable methods for bacteriophage long-term preservation, that warrant the access to original or mutant stocks of unchanged properties, have become of crucial importance. A storage method that retains the infectivity of any kind of bacteriophage virions, either in a cell lysate or in a purified suspension, does not exist, due to the enormous diversity of bacteriophages and hence the differentiation of their sensitivity to various storage conditions. Here, we describe a method of long-term bacteriophage preservation, which is based on freezing of freshly infected susceptible bacteria at early stages of bacteriophage development. The infected bacteria release mature bacteriophages upon melting enabling the recovery of bacteriophage virions with high efficiency. The only limitation of this method is the sensitivity of bacteriophage host to deep-freezing, and thus it can be used for the long-term preservation of the vast majority of bacteriophages.

Key words

Bacteriophage preservation Deep-freezing Bacteriophage stability Bacteria Bacteriophage storage Microbiological methods 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funds from the Operational Program “Innovative Economy, 2007–2013,” project No. POIG 01.03.01-02-003/08, and statutory funds for the Faculty of Agriculture and Biology of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, SGGW.

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© Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Microbial BiochemistryInstitute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of SciencesWarsawPoland
  2. 2.Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Autonomous Department of Microbial BiologyWarsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGWWarsawPoland
  3. 3.Laboratory of Molecular Biology (affiliated with the University of Gdańsk)Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of SciencesGdańskPoland

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