Life Sciences Commons^™

Prophage Induction Of Indigenous Marine Lysogenic Bacteria By Environmental Pollutants, Pamela K. Cochran, Christine A. Kellogg, John H. Paul

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Lysogenic bacteria may be abundant components of bacterial assemblages in marine waters. The tremendous number of viruses found in estuarine and other eutrophic environments may be the result in part of induction of prophages. Mitomycin C is the inducing agent of choice for prophage induction; however this is not naturally found in the marine environment. We determined the capability of environmentally important pollutants to effect prophage induction in natural populations of marine bacteria. We investigated Aroclor 1248, a PCB mixture, bunker C fuel oil #6, and a pesticide mixture as inducing agents for natural bacterial communities from the Gulf of …