It seems that we have been struck by the T1 bacteriophage again. These events seem to be random and anyone working in the vicinity is at risk.
If you are going to use this room, watch out for cultures that mysteriously don’t grow, or that grow and then lyse. Always check OD600 of overnight cultures because grown and lysed cultures can sometimes look ok to the eye even though their OD are < 1 (which indicates lysis, and phage!)
Any suspected cultures can be checked for T1 phage by a PCR screen (see Tom for primers).
Please talk to Tom in the [deleted] Lab if anything suspicious occurs or if you have any questions.
We have phage resistant mutants for several different strains (BL21 DE3, JM109, DH5alpha) if you become infected.