286 



Raymond Latarjet 



ruled out that peroxide immediately absorbed by the bacteria 

 could slowly diffuse through the bacterial body towards the 

 sensitive sites of the complex, a process which could also 

 account for the observed effect. 



Part-inactivation of bacteriophage 



Indications that ionizing radiations and some chemicals can 

 increase the sensitivity of biological systems to further toxic 



z 



u 



< 



o 



z 



> 



10 



1 



NORMAL 

 T4 



PRETREATEO 

 T4 



_L 



20 



60 

 TIME IN MINUTES 



120 



Fig. 4. Inactivation of normal and cumene-hydroperoxide 

 pretreated phage T4 by ascorbic acid. 



effects have now been obtained by several workers. In 

 particular, Alper (1955) has shown that bacteriophage which 

 has been irradiated in dilute suspension is more sensitive to 

 inactivation by reducing agents. It seemed of interest to 

 investigate to what extent organic peroxides could replace 

 ionizing radiation in the production of part-inactivated phage. 

 This investigation is being carried out in my laboratory by 

 Dr. D. Maxwell who has already observed the following 



results. 



The work of Alper was done on phages S-13 and T3. Dr. 



