Radiosensitivity of bacteriophages of aerobic spore-forming microorganisms.

Under conditions of the direct action of radiation on seven original phages of aerobic spore-forming bacteria and four standard phages of E. coli, it was established that they possessed different sensitivity to gamma radiation and were distributed into four groups. The phages of E. coli of the T series, especially T2 phage, proved the most sensitive. The phages of aerobic spore-forming bacilli were characterized by greater resistance to the action of gamma radiation, which is evidently associated with the lower content of DNA of the phages of Bacillus in comparison with T phages.