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Bacteriophages are among the most common and diverse entities in the biosphere. [2] Bacteriophages are ubiquitous viruses, found wherever bacteria exist. It is estimated there are more than 10 31 bacteriophages on the planet, more than every other organism on Earth, including bacteria, combined. [3]
As there exist estimates of bacterial numbers on Earth of approximately 10 30, [4] there consequently is an expectation that 10 31 or more individual virus (mostly phage [5]) particles exist , making phages the most numerous category of "organisms" on our planet.
Transmission electron micrograph of multiple bacteriophages attached to a bacterial cell wall. A phageome is a community of bacteriophages and their metagenomes localized in a particular environment, similar to a microbiome. [1] [2] Phageome is a subcategory of virome, which is all of the viruses that are associated with a host or environment. [3]
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 . In a process known as the viral shunt , organic molecules released from dead bacterial cells stimulate fresh bacterial and algal growth.
A Bacillus phage is a member of a group of bacteriophages known to have bacteria in the genus Bacillus as host species. These bacteriophages have been found to belong to the families Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, Podoviridae, or Tectiviridae.
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.
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Bacteria are ubiquitous, living in every possible habitat on the planet including soil, underwater, deep in Earth's crust and even such extreme environments as acidic hot springs and radioactive waste. [25] [26] There are thought to be approximately 2×10 30 bacteria on Earth, [27] forming a biomass that is only exceeded by plants. [28]