A virus that is parasitic within a bacterium Phages are used experimentally to identify bacteria, to control manufacturing processes (such as cheese production) that depend on bacteria and, because they can alter the genetic make-up of bacterial cells, they are important tools in genetic engineering as cloning vectors Each phage is specific for only one type of bacterium
A virus that infects bacterial hosts, and may be utilized to introduce genes Phage are widely used as cloning and expression vectors
Virus that lives in and kills bacteria Also called phage Bacteriophage: A virus that infects bacteria In genetic engineering, it is used to introduce genes into bacteria cells
a virus that is parasitic in bacteria; it uses the bacterium's machinery and energy to produce more phage until the bacterium is destroyed and phage is released to invade surrounding bacteria
Also called phage, or bacterial virus, any group of viruses that infect bacteria These were discovered by Frederick W Tworf (1915) and Felix d'Hérelle (1917)
A virus that in- fects bacteria Altered forms are used as vectors for cloning DNA
or phage Any of a group of usually complex viruses that infect bacteria. Discovered in the early 20th century, bacteriophages were used to treat human bacterial diseases such as bubonic plague and cholera but were not successful; they were abandoned with the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s. The rise of drug-resistant bacteria in the 1990s focused renewed attention on the therapeutic potential of bacteriophages. Thousands of varieties exist, each of which may infect only one or a few types of bacteria. The core of a bacteriophage's genetic material may be either DNA or RNA. On infecting a host cell, bacteriophages known as lytic or virulent phages release replicated viral particles by lysing (bursting) the host cell. Other types, known as lysogenic or temperate, integrate their nucleic acid into the host's chromosome to be replicated during cell division. During this time they are not virulent. The viral genome may later become active, initiating production of viral particles and destruction of the host cell. A.D. Hershey and Martha Chase used a bacteriophage in a famous 1952 experiment that supported the theory that DNA is the genetic material. Because bacteriophage genomes are small and because large quantities can be prepared in the laboratory, they are a favourite research tool of molecular biologists. Studies of phages have helped illuminate genetic recombination, nucleic acid replication, and protein synthesis
Many phage have proved useful in the study of molecular biology and as vectors for the transfer of genetic information between cells ... lambda bacteriophage can also undergo a lytic cycle or can enter a lysogenic cycle, in which the page DNA is incorporated into that of the host, awaiting a signal that initiates events leading to replication of the virus and lysis of the host cell [Glick]