Monitoring the effects of salt background, alkalinity and temperature on MS2 bacteriophage behaviour via solvatochromism, metachromasia and chemical kinetics

Abstract

Although this work deals with well-established methods and a well-known model system, it demonstrates innovative findings. These groundbreaking findings will be of interest to chemists, biologists, and medical professionals alike. This investigation is pure and provides a dataset for gaining an in-depth understanding of the interactions of the MS2 bacteriophage with inorganic and organic ions. The nanoparticle surface can be viewed as an unstructured continuum characterized by a zeta potential that governs interspecies interactions and depends on the ionic composition of the aqueous medium. Interactions with inorganic and organic ions should involve considering the surface as a discontinuum. Recently, empirical evidence has led to a patch-like model of the surface of MS2 with discrete positive and negative values of surface charge density. This work involves concepts of the solvatochromism of malachite green as a polarity-dependent factor, the metachromasia of crystal violet as an association-dependent factor, and the chemical kinetics of alkaline fading of these dyes to investigate interparticle interactions and ion exchange. Such combined techniques provide broadly applicable data for studying bacterial interactions with various charged species or other biological interfaces.