Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Chemistry

College

College of Science

First Advisor

Paul Richardson

Abstract/Description

Bacteriophage is of great interest because of its potential role in controlling bacterial populations in our environment. UV exposure has a damaging effect on the virus decreasing lytic ability. This study set out to test the effects of UV radiation, in amounts comparable to local environmental conditions, on bacteriophage T2. The virus was placed in a Petri dish in a PBS medium and exposed to UV radiation at 365nm. The irradiated virus was allowed to infect E. coli and plated. The plaques formed were counted to determine lytic activity of the virus with respect to UV irradiation. The results showed that lytic activity decreased by about the same amount after 15 – 30 minutes, but after that showed a steady decrease as exposure time increased.

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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