The absolute rate of the phage-antiphage reaction

Hershey, Alfred Day (July 1941) The absolute rate of the phage-antiphage reaction. Journal of Immunology, 41 (3). pp. 299-319.

URL: http://www.jimmunol.org/content/41/3/299

Abstract

1. The rate of initial combination of a coliphage and antiphage, as deduced from the rate of neutralization, is slower than that predicted on the assumption of perfect adsorption limited by diffusion. 2. This result is confirmed by the relatively high temperature-coefficient, 2.0 for 10° rise in temperature. 3. It is estimated that about one out of 500,000 collisions between the reactants results in combination at 0°C. 4. Since the fraction of fruitful collisions increases rapidly with temperature, it is unlikely that the slowness of the reaction can be attributed to the requirement of specified mutual orientations between phage and antiphage for combination. 5. The rate of reaction is relatively indifferent to pH and presumably to surface potential in the presence of electrolytes. 6. The assumption that activated collisions consist of unoriented collisions between molecules sharing a minimal total kinetic energy of relative translation, leads to the most satisfactory kinetic formulation compatible with the experimental results. This assumption is incompatible with the mosaic hypothesis applied to the structure of simple antigens, and with any high degree of diversity among antibody-molecules. 7. A hypothesis is suggested to account for some differences between the phage-antiphage and the pneumococcus-antipneumococcus reactions.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > bacteriophage
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > bacteriophage
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > bacteriophage
CSHL Authors:
Communities: The Carnegie Institution Department of Genetics
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: July 1941
Date Deposited: 18 Apr 2017 19:08
Last Modified: 18 Apr 2017 19:08
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/34543

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