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Structural model at atomic resolution of bacteriophage T4 [1] The structure of a typical myovirus bacteriophage Anatomy and infection cycle of bacteriophage T4.. A bacteriophage (/ b æ k ˈ t ɪər i oʊ f eɪ dʒ /), also known informally as a phage (/ ˈ f eɪ dʒ /), is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea.
[56] [57] Viruses, just like bacteria, can evolve resistance to different treatments. [58] Bacteriophages are very specific, targeting only one or a few strains of bacteria. [59] Traditional antibiotics have a more wide-ranging effect, killing both harmful and useful bacteria, such as those facilitating food digestion. [60]
A prophage is a bacteriophage (often shortened to "phage") genome that is integrated into the circular bacterial chromosome or exists as an extrachromosomal plasmid within the bacterial cell. [1] Integration of prophages into the bacterial host is the characteristic step of the lysogenic cycle of temperate phages.
During the lysogenic cycle, the virus genome is incorporated as prophage and a repressor prevents viral replication. Nonetheless, a temperate phage can escape repression to replicate, produce viral particles, and lyse the bacteria. [13] The temperate phage escaping repression would be a disadvantage for the bacteria.
Vampire viruses prey on other viruses to replicate themselves. These particular viruses are caused when a bacteriophage latches onto a soil-based virus’s neck and uses its “life” to survive ...
The average virion is about one one-hundredth the linear size of the average bacterium. A teaspoon of seawater typically contains about fifty million viruses. [6] 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 ...
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]
In a 1945 study by Demerec and Fano, [4] T7 was used to describe one of the seven phage types (T1 to T7) that grow lytically on Escherichia coli. [5] Although all seven phages were numbered arbitrarily, phages with odd numbers, or T-odd phages, were later discovered to share morphological and biochemical features that distinguish them from T-even phages. [6]