Multiplicity of infection (MOI) The multiplicity of infection (abbreviated MOI) is the average number of phage per bacterium. The MOI is determined by simply dividing the number of phage added (ml added x PFU/ml) by the number of bacteria added (ml added x cells/ml). The average number of phage per bacterium in the population could be 0.1, 1, 2, 10, etc, depending upon how you set up the experiment. Although the MOI tells you the average number of phage per bacterium, the actual number of phage that infect any given bacterial cell is a statistical function. For example, if the MOI is 1, some cells will get infected with one phage but some cells may be infected with 0 phage and other cells infected with two phage. The proportion of cells in a population infected by a specific number of phage (n) can be calculated from the Poisson distribution. |