The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 8, Issue 2 215-223, Copyright © 1975 by Society for General Microbiology
The nature and incidence of lysogeny in Mycobacterium fortuitum
J. M. Grange and R. G. Bird
Ten of 28 strain of Mycobacterium fortuitum (ranae) were found to be
associated with bacteriophage; three were pseudolysogenic, one liberated a
phage that lysed a sensitive indicator strain, two liberated
morphologically complete phages that did not lyse any of the strains used
in this study and four liberated morphologically defective phages. The
lysogenic and defectively lysogenic strains showed anomalies in cultural,
biochemical and antigenic properties and in susceptibility to
superinfecting phages. In view of the high frequency of lysogeny found in
M. fortuitum, the role of bacteriophage in the variation of properties,
including pathogenicity, of mycobacteria of greater clinical importance
merits further consideration.
