Which of the following is the best description of a bacteriophage?

Which of the following is the best description of a bacteriophage?

Viruses : Example Question #1 Which of the following is the best description of a bacteriophage? Explanation: A bacteriophage is a virus that infects bacteria. They are not considered living (becuase they cannot replicate on their own) organisms, nor are they techincally considered non-living organisms.

What is a bacteriophage quizlet?

bacteriophage. aka Phage. A virus that infects bacteria. Usually specific for a single bacterial species. virus.

What is bacteriophage in microbiology?

Bacteriophage (phage) are viruses that specifically infect bacteria. Phage come in a large variety of sizes and shapes. A phage particle is composed of a single type of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) and a protein capsid that protects the genetic material.

What are the characteristics of bacteriophages?

Characteristics of bacteriophages Like all viruses, phages are simple organisms that consist of a core of genetic material (nucleic acid) surrounded by a protein capsid. The nucleic acid may be either DNA or RNA and may be double-stranded or single-stranded.

How do bacteriophages kill bacteria?

Bacteriophages kill bacteria by making them burst or lyse. This happens when the virus binds to the bacteria. A virus infects the bacteria by injecting its genes (DNA or RNA). The phage virus copies itself (reproduces) inside the bacteria.

Can bacteriophages kill superbugs?

Scientists investigated phages that can kill the world’s leading superbug, Acinetobacter baumannii, which is responsible for up to 20% of infections in intensive care units. A major risk of being hospitalized is catching a bacterial infection.

How does a bacteriophage infect bacteria?

A bacteriophage attaches itself to a susceptible bacterium and infects the host cell. Bacteriophages occasionally remove a portion of their host cells’ bacterial DNA during the infection process and then transfer this DNA into the genome of new host cells. This process is known as transduction.

What are the 2 types of bacteriophage?

1C and Figure 10.7. 2E). There are two primary types of bacteriophages: lytic bacteriophages and temperate bacteriophages.

Can a bacteriophage infect a human?

Although bacteriophages cannot infect and replicate in human cells, they are an important part of the human microbiome and a critical mediator of genetic exchange between pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria [5][6].

Can bacteriophages harm humans?

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria but are harmless to humans. To reproduce, they get into a bacterium, where they multiply, and finally they break the bacterial cell open to release the new viruses. Therefore, bacteriophages kill bacteria.

What disease is caused by bacteriophage?

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.

How are bacteriophages useful to humans?

Bacteriophages attack only their host bacteria, not human cells, so they are potentially good candidates to treat bacterial diseases in humans. After antibiotics were discovered, the phage approach was largely abandoned in many parts of the world (particularly English-speaking countries).

Can bacteriophage be treated with antibiotics?

Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically target bacteria. Before the development of antibiotics, some efforts were made to use bacteriophages as a treatment option, but most of this research stopped soon after the discovery of antibiotics. There are two different replication options which bacteriophages employ.

Where are bacteriophages found?

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Also known as phages (coming from the root word ‘phagein’ meaning “to eat”), these viruses can be found everywhere bacteria exist including, in the soil, deep within the earth’s crust, inside plants and animals, and even in the oceans.

What’s a prophage?

: an intracellular form of a bacteriophage in which it is harmless to the host, is usually integrated into the hereditary material of the host, and reproduces when the host does.

How many bacteriophages are there?

1031 bacteriophages

How many bacteria do bacteriophages kill?

It is estimated that phages kill and lyse between 15% and 40% of the ocean’s bacteria every day, thereby influencing the ratio of particulate to dissolved carbon, rates of phytoplankton productivity and oxygen production, and perhaps even global climate and weather patterns [4].

How does bacteriophage survive?

During the lysogenic life cycle, the genome of temperate phages is integrated into the bacterial chromosome. For example, phages drive bacterial evolution by delivering bacterial DNA fragments to neighbouring bacteria by generalized transduction. …

What part of the bacteriophage gets injected?

The phage possesses a genome of linear ds DNA contained within an icosahedral head. The tail consists of a hollow core through which the DNA is injected into the host cell.

How do you make a bacteriophage?

First, phages are more difficult to prepare cleanly. To produce phages, first scientists have to grow a large quantity of bacteria that is the natural host of the phage. The bacteria is then infected with the phages, and the phages in turn reproduce and kill all the bacteria.

How does bacteriophage help in controlling diseases?

AbstractThe use of phages for disease control is a fast expanding area of plant protection with great potential to replace the chemical control measures now prevalent. Phages can be used effectively as part of integrated disease management strategies.

Can bacteriophages infect plants?

For plants the term bacteriophage biocontrol is more often used. In recent years, several studies have been published on phage biocontrol on a number of important bacterial plant pathogens, with many very promising results (see Table ​1).

What are bacterial diseases in plants?

Plant pathogenic bacteria cause many different kinds of symptoms that include galls and overgrowths, wilts, leaf spots, specks and blights, soft rots, as well as scabs and cankers. In contrast to viruses, which are inside host cells, walled bacteria grow in the spaces between cells and do not invade them.

Are bacteriophages alive?

Bacteriophages, or “phages” for short, are viruses that specifically infect bacteria. Phages and other viruses are not considered living organisms because they can’t carry out biological processes without the help and cellular machinery of another organism.