What is bacteriophage explain?
A bacteriophage (/bækˈtɪərioʊfeɪdʒ/), also known informally as a phage (/ˈfeɪdʒ/), is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from “bacteria” and the Greek φαγεῖν (phagein), meaning “to devour”.
Which are the two types of bacteriophages?
There are two primary types of bacteriophages: lytic bacteriophages and temperate bacteriophages. Bacteriophages that replicate through the lytic life cycle are called lytic bacteriophages, and are so named because they lyse the host bacterium as a normal part of their life cycle.
What is the structure of a bacteriophage?
All bacteriophages are composed of a nucleic acid molecule that is surrounded by a protein structure. A bacteriophage attaches itself to a susceptible bacterium and infects the host cell.
What disease does bacteriophage cause?
These include diphtheria, botulism, Staphylococcus aureus infections (i.e. skin and pulmonary infections, food poisoning, and toxic shock syndrome), Streptococcus infections, Pasteurella infections, cholera, Shiga toxing-producing Shigella and Escherichia coli infections, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
What are the characteristics of bacteriophage?
Characteristics of a Bacteriophage Examples include Inoviridae, Microviridae, Rudiviridae, and Tectiviridae. Like all other viruses, they are simple organisms consisting of a core of genetic material surrounded by a protein capsid. The genetic material can either be DNA or RNA in the bacteriophages.
Is bacteriophage a cloning vector?
There are many types of cloning vectors, but the most commonly used ones are genetically engineered plasmids. Cloning is generally first performed using Escherichia coli, and cloning vectors in E. coli include plasmids, bacteriophages (such as phage λ), cosmids, and bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs).
Does bacteriophage have double stranded DNA?
The tailed double-stranded DNA bacteriophages, or Caudovirales, constitute ~96% of all the known phages. Although these phages come in a great variety of sizes and morphology, their virions are mainly constructed of similar molecular building blocks via similar assembly pathways.
Is bacteriophage a prokaryote?
An important finding drawn from our data is the significant, positive correlation of α- and β-diversities between phage and prokaryotes (Fig. 1). As phages are obligate parasites of prokaryotes, their diversity is thus limited by the presence of their preys.
What are the main components of bacteriophage?
The tailed phages have three major components: a capsid where the genome is packed, a tail that serves as a pipe during infection to secure transfer of genome into host cell and a special adhesive system (adsorption apparatus) at the very end of the tail that will recognise the host cell and penetrate its wall.
Does bacteriophage has double stranded DNA?
The Double-Stranded DNA (dsDNA) tailed phages, or Caudovirales, account for 95% of all the phages reported in the scientific literature, and possibly make up the majority of phages on the planet. Nineteen families that infect bacteria and archaea are currently recognized; of these, 15 have double-stranded DNA genomes.
Are bacteriophages harmful to people?
Bacteriophages can make bacteria harmful to humans. Bacteriophages play a role in human disease by turning some harmless bacteria into agents of disease. These bacteria are then able to infect humans and cause food poisoning and other deadly diseases.
Can phages infect humans?
Phages are a type of virus that can only infect very specific (matching) bacterium. They can not infect human cells, plant cells, etc. They can also only infect one specific bacterial strain, or very closely related strains. Phages that kill a pathogenic bacterium can not harm our beneficial bacteria in our microbiome.
Can bacteriophages infect human cells?
In addition to infecting bacteria, bacteriophages also infect other microscopic prokaryotes known as archaea . This infection is specific to a specific species of bacteria or archaea. A phage that infects E. coli for instance, will not infect anthrax bacteria. Since bacteriophages do not infect human cells,…
How do bacteriophages infect bacteria?
A bacteriophage infects bacteria by inserting its genetic material into the host cell. To do this, the bacteriophage attaches itself to the surface of the host with tail fibers. Afterward, the genetic material uses the bacteria’s replication apparatus to duplicate itself.