title: Application of zinc chloride precipitation method for rapid isolation and concentration of infectious Pectobacterium spp. and Dickeya spp. lytic bacteriophages from surface water and plant and soil extracts.
abstract: This is the first report describing precipitation of bacteriophage particles with zinc chloride as a method of choice to isolate infectious lytic bacteriophages against Pectobacterium spp. and Dickeya spp. from environmental samples. The isolated bacteriophages are ready to use to study various (ecological) aspects of bacteria-bacteriophage interactions. The method comprises the well-known precipitation of phages from aqueous extracts of the test material by addition of ZnCl2, resuscitation of bacteriophage particles in Ringer's buffer to remove the ZnCl2 excess and a soft agar overlay assay with the host bacterium to isolate infectious individual phage plaques. The method requires neither an enrichment step nor other steps (e. g., PEG precipitation, ultrafiltration, or ultracentrifugation) commonly used in other procedures and results in isolation of active viable bacteriophage particles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Kladki 24, 80-822, Gdansk, Poland. robert.czajkowski@biotech.ug.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Czajkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Kladki 24, 80-822, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Zofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ozymko
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Kladki 24, 80-822, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lojkowska
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D002712:Chlorides / Q000378:metabolism*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000821:virology*; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D044043:Pectobacterium / Q000821:virology*; D010944:Plants / Q000821:virology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*; D017967:Zinc Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002712:Chlorides; D017967:Zinc Compounds; C016837:zinc chloride