A bacteriophage, also known as a phage, is a type of virus that infects and replicates only within bacterial cells. The word "bacteriophage" literally means "bacteria eater," as these viruses destroy their bacterial hosts. Bacteriophages are composed of a nucleic acid molecule surrounded by a protein structure, and they can have simple or elaborate genomes. They attach to a susceptible bacterium, infect the host cell, and hijack its cellular machinery to produce new bacteriophages. This process ultimately leads to the lysis of the bacterium. Bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere and play a significant role in the population dynamics and evolution of bacteria and archaea
. For further information, you can refer to the following sources:
- "Bacteriophages" on NCBI Bookshelf: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493185/
- "Phages in nature" on PubMed Central: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109452/
- "Bacteriophage / phage" on Nature: https://www.nature.com/scitable/definition/bacteriophage-phage-293/
- "Bacteriophage" on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
