Bacteriophage f2
{{Short description|Species of virus}}
{{Virusbox
| parent = Emesvirus
| species = Emesvirus zinderi
| strain = Bacteriophage f2
}}
Bacteriophage f2 is an icosahedral, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that infects the bacterium Escherichia coli.{{cite book |last1=van Duin |first1=J. |last2=Tsareva |first2=N. |chapter=Single-stranded RNA phages. Chapter 15 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bacteriophagesed00abed/page/n189 175]–196 |editor-last=Calendar |editor-first=R. L. |title=The Bacteriophages |url=https://archive.org/details/bacteriophagesed00abed |url-access=limited |edition=Second |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0195148509 }} It is closely related to bacteriophage MS2 and assigned to the same species.{{cite journal |vauthors=van Duin J, van den Wor S |year=2005 |title=The Positive Sense Single Stranded RNA Viruses |journal=Virus Taxonomy |volume= |issue= |pages=739–1128 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-249951-7.50015-8 |pmc=7332303 |pmid=|isbn=9780122499517 }}
History
f2 was the first RNA-containing bacteriophage to be isolated, reported in 1961.{{cite journal |last1=Loeb |first1=T. |last2=Zinder |first2=N. D. |title=A bacteriophage containing RNA |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA |year=1961 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=282–289 |doi= 10.1073/pnas.47.3.282|pmc=221572 |pmid=13763053|bibcode=1961PNAS...47..282L |doi-access=free }} Tim Loeb and Norton Zinder identified two phages in filtered samples of raw New York City sewage that grew on male (F+) but not on female (F−) E. coli. The first phage f1, produced cloudy plaques, while the second phage, f2, produced clear plaques.