What is a bacteriophage?
The word “bacteriophage” literally means “eats bacteria”, and is a Greek term coined by the French-Canadian scientist named Felix d’Herelle. A bacteriophage is a virus that only destroys a very specific host bacterium by a process known as ‘lysing’. Bacteriophage are also known simply as ‘phage’. When a bacteriophage encounters a specific bacterium or ‘host’, it breaks through the bacterial cell wall and effectively lyses or ‘kills’ the bacterium. During the process of lysing, the phage injects its’ DNA into the bacterium, which begins to replicate as new phage. Once a bacterium is lysed by a phage, the bacterium becomes host to a reproduction process that results in the release of additional phage. These new phage are then capable of lysing more bacteria. This process continues until the host is no longer present, after which the phage decomposes into the soil. You can read about this process on our technology page.
