The plaque assay was carried out using soft layer agar [23 (link),25 (link)], which was made up of LBB in Lambda buffer (6 mmol/L tris pH 7.2; 10 mmol/L Mg(SO4)2·7H2O; 50 mg/L gelatin (HiMedia), and supplemented with 4 g/L agar (HiMedia).
Mueller–Hinton agar (Mast group, Bootle, UK), tryptone soyabean agar (HiMedia), Luria–Bertani agar (HiMedia), and nutrient agar (HiMedia), were used to determine plaque morphology [25 (link),62 (link)].
Ec_MI-02 was maintained and diluted in Lambda buffer and stored at 4°C in all the experiments described below [23 (link),31 (link)].