Loss of adsorptive ability--the reason for inactivation of the RM2 bacteriophage during storage

The kinetics of bacteriophage PM2 inactivation at storage was compared with the kinetics of bacteriophage adsorption on Alteromonas espejiana BAL-31 host cells. Adsorption ability and infectivity are lost with the same rate at temperatures 4-28 degrees C suggesting the loss of adsorption ability to result in bacteriophage inactivation. At higher temperatures infectivity is lost more rapidly than the ability of adsorption. The single hit kinetics of adsorption ability loss suggests the simple model of independent inactivation of 12 antireceptors located at the tops of icosaedric capsid to be erroneous. At bacteriophage inactivation the major port of protein I, a fragment of antireceptors, is preserved in the capsid composition.