What is Bacteriophage?

About Bacteriophage:

• A bacteriophage is a type of virus that infects bacteria.
• The word “bacteriophage” literally means “bacteria eater,” because bacteriophages destroy their host cells.
• They are the most common biological entities in nature.
• Also known as phages, 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. 
• Thousands of varieties of phages exist, each of which may infect only one type or a few types of bacteria or archaea. 
• All bacteriophages are composed of a nucleic acid molecule that is surrounded by a protein structure.
  • The nucleic acid may be either DNA or RNA, and it may be double-stranded or single-stranded. 
• How does it infect bacteria?
  • A bacteriophage attaches itself to a susceptible bacterium and infects the host cell. 
  • Following infection, the bacteriophage hijacks the bacterium’s cellular machinery to prevent it from producing bacterial components and instead forces the cell to produce viral components.
  • Eventually, new bacteriophages assemble and burst out of the bacterium in a process called lysis.
  • 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.
• Uses:
  • They are common natural entities that can destroy bacteria that are resistant to drugs such as antibiotics.
  • Phage therapy holds promising potential in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Q1: What are antibiotics?

Antibiotics are medicines that fight bacterial infections in people and animals. They work by killing the bacteria or by making it hard for the bacteria to grow and multiply.

Source: New system makes lifesaving phages accessible, transportable and much easier to use