Chapter 34 



Bacterial Viruses in the Sea* 



R. Spencer 



Xliere have been a number of investigations over the years con- 

 cerning tlie occurrence in the sea of bacterial viruses, or phages, 

 active against human intestinal bacteria of the family Entero- 

 hacteriaceae. The earlier work has been reviewed by ZoBell ( 19 ) 

 and more recent investigations have been carried out by Guelin 



(9, 10). It will suffice to state here, however, that although 

 phages active against a variety of enterobacteria can readily be 

 demonstrated in polluted estuarine and coastal waters, their 

 presence has not been demonstrated in waters remote from 

 terrestrial contamination. Attempts to isolate phages from sea 

 water against marine bacteria have, however, been successful 

 in some cases. ZoBell (19) and Carlucci and Pramer (6) were 

 successful in isolating from sea water taken close to the coast, 

 and Smith and Krueger (16) from harbour mud, phages which 

 were active against marine bacteria, and although ZoBell reported 

 that he was unable to demonstrate the presence of phages in 

 water collected beyond the littoral zone, such phages have 

 subsequently been isolated by Kriss and Rukina (11) and by 

 myself (17, 18). 



Kriss and Rukina (11) examined a variety of samples of 

 water from different stations and different depths in the Black 

 Sea, together with samples of mud, for the presence of phages 

 active against bacteria previously isolated from the Black Sea, 

 and succeeded in isolating phages active against bacteria classi- 

 fied as Micrococcus albus, M. candidus, Sarcina nivea, S. flava, 

 Mycobacterium hyalimim, M. album, Pseudobacterium biforme. 

 Bacterium quails, Bacillus subtilis, B. angulans, B. goniosporus, 



This paper has been prepared as part of the programme of the Department of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research. British Crown Copyright Reserved. 



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