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It is estimated there are more than 10 31 bacteriophages on the planet, more than every other organism on Earth, including bacteria, combined. [3] Viruses are the most abundant biological entity in the water column of the world's oceans, and the second largest component of biomass after prokaryotes, [4] where up to 9x10 8 virions per millilitre ...
Bacteriophages , potentially the most numerous "organisms" on Earth, are the viruses of bacteria (more generally, of prokaryotes [1]). Phage ecology is the study of the interaction of bacteriophages with their environments. [2]
Phage typing is based on the specific binding of phages to antigens and receptors on the surface of bacteria and the resulting bacterial lysis or lack thereof. [4] The binding process is known as adsorption. [5] Once a phage adsorbs to the surface of a bacteria, it may undergo either the lytic cycle or the lysogenic cycle. [6]
Phage injecting its genome into bacterial cell An electron micrograph of bacteriophages attached to a bacterial cell. These viruses are the size and shape of coliphage T1. Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of pathogenic bacterial infections.
Most of these viruses are bacteriophages which infect and destroy marine bacteria and control the growth of phytoplankton at the base of the marine food web. Bacteriophages are harmless to plants and animals but are essential to the regulation of marine ecosystems. They supply key mechanisms for recycling ocean carbon and nutrients.
Contaminated food or liquids can also spread the virus. Shellfish, especially oysters and clams, are also known to spread the bug, because they are filter feeders and can accumulate the virus from ...
Bacteriophages (Greek for 'bacteria eater'), or simply phages, are viruses which infect bacteria. [15] The idea of using phages against unwanted bacteria developed shortly after their discovery. With the improvements in organic chemistry during the 1950s, exploration and development of broad spectrum antibiotics displaced interest in ...
Several bacteriophages contain toxin genes that become incorporated into the host bacteria genome through infection and render the bacteria toxic. [9] Many well known bacterial toxins are produced from specific strains of the bacteria species that have obtained toxigenicity through lysogenic conversion, pseudolysogeny, or horizontal gene ...