Community Q&A: Storing phages?

Question

Any advice on how to store phages/ viruses? I know there are quite a few methods for long-time storage but I'd like to hear your advice. Thanks! 😀 — @LeptihnLab

A few of the answers:

"Easiest way that our lab uses is to make a high titre lysate. You can clean this via ultra-centrifugation into SM buffer, and store long term at 4C. Option to add 0.1 volume chloroform if concerned about sterility. Most phages will keep for decades using this approach [...] See our methods paper on this" — @JeremyJBarr

"Will depend on phage and phage-host system. -80 glycerol stocks of phage - needs testing for phage. Or -80 stock of cells that are infected .Or in SM buffer @ 4 if above dont work .Some phage are sensitive to this as well. Can ad CHCl3 to lystates for storage -check CHCl3 first!" — @milja001

"One thing we do is use a modified version of Graham Hatfull’s (@GHatfull) approach for BRED where we extract the genome with phenol chloroform. Can be used later to electroporate back into the host if the phage is unstable. Works good for med genomes <90kbp" — @Phage4Lyfe

Check the tweet thread for more replies as they come in!