Bacterial virus f2 and its RNA were examined to elucidate the mode of ozone utilizing sucrose density gradient analysis and electtron microscopic techniques. the inactivation kinetics of the virus f2 by ozonation showed that the viruses were inactivated during the first 5 sec of the reaction and were further inactivated at a slower rate during the next 10 min at 0.09 and 0.8mg/l ozone concentrations. The virus coat was broken by ozonation into many pieces of protein subunits and the adsorption of the viruses to the host pili was inversely related to the extent of the breakage of the virus. The viral RNA was released from the virus particles during ozone, but ozone inactivation of the RNA enclosed in the protein coat could not ruled out the possibility that the RNA was secondarily sheared by a reaction with the broken coat protein.