bacteriophage (redirected from Bacteriophages)

bacteriophage /bac·te·rio·phage/ (bak-tēr´e-o-fāj″) a virus that lyses bacteria.bacteriopha´gic

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temperate bacteriophage  one whose genetic material (prophage) becomes an intimate part of the bacterial genome, persisting and being reproduced through many cell division cycles; the affected bacterial cell is known as a lysogenic bacterium (q.v.).

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bac·te·ri·o·phage (bk-tîr--fj)

n.

A virus capable of infecting and lysing bacterial cells. Also called phage.

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bacteriophage

[baktir′ē·əfāj′]

Etymology: Gk, bakterion + phagein, to eat

any virus that infects host bacteria, including the blue-green algae. Bacteriophages resemble other viruses in that each is composed of either ribonucleic acid (RNA) or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). They vary in structure from simple fibrous bodies to complex forms with contractile "tails." Bacteriophages associated with temperate bacteria may be genetically intimate with the host and are named for the bacterial strain for which they are specific, such as coliphage and corynebacteriophage. bacteriophagic, adj., bacteriophagy [-of′əjē] n.

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bacteriophage,

n any virus that causes lysis of host bacteria.

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bacteriophage

or simply phage; a virus that infects bacteria often killing them by lysis; many varieties exist, and usually each attacks only one kind of bacteria. Some bacteriophages are widely used as cloning vectors and for determining DNA sequence. Virulent DNA bacteriophages in the T series adsorb to specific receptor sites on the bacterial cell wall and inject their DNA content into the bacterium. The viral DNA usurps the machinery of the cell for the replication of viral DNA and protein which is assembled into a crop of progeny phage which are released by lysis from the cell. Called also bacterial virus.

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M13 bacteriophage

small rod-shaped, nonlytic, single-stranded DNA phage; used as a template in the Sangar dideoxy method for DNA sequence determination.

φX174 bacteriophage

prototype of a class of phage that are small, icosahedral single-stranded DNA viruses that code for only 10 to 12 proteins and are highly dependent on the host cell for their replication.

RNA bacteriophage

the genome is RNA instead of DNA; smallest known viruses, encode for only four proteins; they have contributed to basic studies of RNA.

temperate b's

typified by λ phage; have a similar lytic life cycle but in addition have an alternate life cycle whereby the injected DNA becomes integrated into the cell DNA where it remains stable, behaving as a cell gene. The integrated DNA is called prophage and the bacterial cell is said to be lysogenic. The phage DNA may be induced whereby it becomes disassociated from the cell DNA and enters the lytic life cycle. Temperate phage may transfer bacterial cell DNA from one cell to another to produce a recombinant.