A giant Pseudomonas phage from Poland.

A novel giant phage of the family Myoviridae is described. Pseudomonas phage PA5oct was isolated from a sewage sample from an irrigated field near Wroclaw, Poland. The virion morphology indicates that PA5oct differs from known giant phages. The phage has a head of about 131 nm in diameter and a tail of 136 × 19 nm. Phage PA5oct contains a genome of approximately 375 kbp and differs in size from any tailed phages known. PA5oct was further characterized by determination of its latent period and burst size and its sensitivity to heating, chloroform, and pH.