Effect of Spermine on Host-Cell Lysis and Reproduction by a Lactic Streptococcal Bacteriophage

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A method was tested for protecting a Streptococcus lactis strain, ML3, used as a starter in the manufacture of Cheddar cheese, against the lytic activity of its homologous phage, ml3. At a concentration of 10−2m, a naturally occurring polyamine, spermine, in the form of its hydrochloride, protected ML3 against lysis-from-without and lysozyme activity and against lysis by the phage when added at the time of infection or up to 21 min after infection. It was found that the latter protective effect could be accounted for in terms of the spermine preventing the formation of mature particles rather than preventing the escape of viable phage. Single colonies selected from a culture of ML3 cells that had been previously infected with phage ml3, in the presence of spermine, were all found to have acquired resistance to phage ml3. They retained this resistance during a 3-month period of daily subculture in broth and, in the absence of spermine, could not be induced to liberate phage or phage components either by the techniques normally used for inducing lysogens or by artificial disruption of the cells. It is concluded that when spermine is added to ML3 cells before a certain critical stage of the phage infection cycle, the process of phage synthesis is irreversibly halted and the cells retain the infecting phage as a defective prophage that confers on the cells immunity to infection by the homologous phage. Phage-resistant cultures did not inherit reduced starter activity in association with their acquired resistance characteristic.

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