Latent phage infections

The importance of the conclusion that bacterial multiplication stops should not be ignored. This fact has since been affirmed by colony counts of bacteria multiply infected with T2r+ (54), T3 (225), and T7 (262), by cytochemical observation, and by the constancy of the infectious centers during the latent period of one-step growth curves of multiply infected bacteria. Indeed, no one has ever demonstrated that phage-infected E. coli can multiply. ... 

Bacteriophage T7 Bacteriophage T7 and its close relative T3 are relatively small DNA viruses that infect Escherichia coli. (Some strains of Shigella and Pasteurella are also hosts for phage T7.) The virus particle has an icosahedral head and a very small tail. The virus particle is fairly complex, with S different proteins in the head and 3-6 different proteins in the tail. One tail protein, the tail fiber protein, is the means by which the virus particle attaches to the bacterial cell surface. Only female cells of Escherichia coli can be infected with T7 male cells can be infected but the multiplication process is terminated during the latent period. 

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