LE3 .A278 1990

1990

Bell, Colin

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Biology

Biology

Soil samples were collected around the base of crown gall infected grape vines from two major grape production regions in Canada: the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Additional samples included sewage effluent removed from a treatment plant outside Wolfville, Nova Scotia. These samples were tested using the agar overlay method (1) for the presence of virulent phage. Specifically, Ag63, a biovar 3 tumorigenic strain of A. tumefaciens, was found to be lysed only by phage present in the sofl originating from the Okanagan Valley. There was no indication of plaque formation from any of the Nova Scotian soil samples. Phage were found, however, in abundance in the sewage effluent sample. All samples were then tested for the presence of temperate phage through the use of mitomycin-C. The varied plaques were isolated and the host range of these phage were spot tested with 26 different genera of soil bacteria ( includfng Agrobacterfum, Pseudomonas spp, and Rhizobium ) for the purpose of findfng phage specific to Agrobacterfum. The most promising phage isolates lysed only Agrobacterfum spp. plus Rhizobium meliloti. Through cluster analysts of all phage isolates, N.S. sewage isolates and B.C. soil isolates clustered separately into two groups with no infiltration of either into the other group.

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