A broad-host-range vibriophage, KVP40, was isolated from sea water by using Vibrio parahaemolyticus 1010 (EB101) as the indicator host. The host range of KVP40 extended over at least 8 Vibrio and 1 Photobacterium species. KVP40 was a large tailed phage containing double-stranded DNA and belonged to Ackermann's morphotype A2. KVP40 DNA was cleaved by 11 different type II restriction endonucleases including EcoRI and HindIII, but not by 17 other enzymes including BamHI, Kpnl and Sall. Many vibriophages have been described (1,4,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)16). Most of them are for Vibrio cholerae, some for V. parahaemolyticus, and a few for other Vibrio species. These phages are generally specific for a single Vibrio species on which the individual phage was isolated. This report describes a unique vibriophage isolated from sea water, which showed a relatively broad host specificity for species of family Vibrionaceae. This phage, designated KVP40, belongs to a rather rare morphotype A2 according to Ackermann's classification (1).Bacterial strains, for which the host range of KVP40 was determined, are listed in Table 1. The following culture media were used for experiments. YPH, YP, and YPL media (pH 8.0) contained 0.3% Yeast Extract (Difco Lab., Detroit, Mich., U.S.A.) and 1% Polypepton (Daigo Eiyo-Kagaku, Osaka, Japan) as basal constituents, and were supplemented with 5, 3, and 0.2% NaCl, respectively. Two percent agar was added to the media for solid culture, but 0.5% for soft agar media. Phage KVP40 was isolated from a sample of highly polluted sea water collected at Urado Bay, Kochi, Japan, with V. parahaemolyticus 1010 as the host. Phage lysates (ca. 109 PFU/ml) were prepared by growing strain 1010 with KVP40 in YP medium at 30 C until lysis occurred. Plaque formation of KVP40 on various bacterial species was examined by either the conventional soft-agar-overlay method or the spot test using YP agar medium with the exception that plaque formation on V. costicola was determined with YPH agar. In some experiments, YPL agar was also used. Plates were incubated for 20 hr at 30 C.Host range of phage KVP40 is shown in