The initial adsorption of T4 bacteriophages to Escherichia coli cells at equivalent concentrations: Experiments and mathematical modeling

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant mutants among pathogenic bacteria has re-focused interest in alternative antibacterial treatments such as “phage therapy”, where viruses are harnessed to infect and destroy bacteria included in their host range. The first stage in bacteriophage multiplication, its adsorption to the bacterial cell surface, has not been accurately resolved before. Previous studies focused on very low phage-to-bacteria concentration ratios. In this study, detailed kinetics of T4 adsorption to Escherichia coli B/r were obtained with high sampling frequency during the first 6 min, with suspensions of nearly the same initial number of phages and bacteria. The results were used to analyze several optional models and to choose the most suitable, based on simplicity and best fit to the data. It was found that simple, mono-attachment models adequately fit the experimental data.