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Rate of spontaneous phage production

Range	<10^-8 pfu/cell
Organism	Bacteriophage (host vaginal Lactobacillus)
Reference	Letarov A, Kulikov E. The bacteriophages in human- and animal body-associated microbial communities. J Appl Microbiol. 2009 Jul107(1):1-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04143.x. p.8 right column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID19239553
Primary Source	Kiliç, A.O., Pavlova, S.I., Alpay, S., Kiliç, S.S. and Tao, L. (2001) Comparative study of vaginal Lactobacillus phages isolated from women in the United States and Turkey: prevalence, morphology, host range, and DNA homology. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 8, 31–39.PubMed ID11139192
Comments	P.8 right column 2nd paragraph: "Taking into consideration that the rate of spontaneous phage production is less than 10^−8 PFU per cell (primary source) in lysogenic vaginal lactobacilli cultures, any factors contributing to lysogen induction may increase the probability of triggering an ‘ecological catastrophe’ in the vaginal microflora. This may also explain the epidemiological link between anaerobic bacterial vaginosis and tobacco smoking (reviewed in Blackwell 1999) as components of smoke were shown to increase phage production in lysogenic lactobacilli cultures (Pavlova and Tao 2000). Detailed investigations of temporal dynamics of Lactobacillus strains in the vagina may allow testing of this hypothesis." PFU=plaque-forming unit
Entered by	Uri M
ID	112568