What is Bacteriophage?
A bacteriophage is a virus which infects bacteria. These viruses typically cause their hosts to die as a result of infection, which makes bacteriophages of great interest to the medical community and to scientists who cultivate bacteria. In industries where bacteria are harnessed to perform tasks such as the fermentation of foods or the production of useful chemicals, contamination with bacteriophages is a major source of concern, as the viruses can bring a process to a complete halt. Humans have been aware of the action of bacteriophages for centuries. Many observers noted historically that consuming water from certain places seemed to confer protection against disease. This water was teeming with bacteriophages which could attack the bacteria causing the disease, although these observers were not aware of this fact. Over time, people began to wonder what it was about waters such as those found in the River Ganges that provided protection from disease, and bacteriophages were discover
bacteriophage is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. The term is commonly used in its shortened form, phage.Typically, bacteriophages consist of an outer protein hull enclosing genetic material. The genetic material can be ssRNA (single stranded RNA), dsRNA, ssDNA, or dsDNA between 5 and 500 kilo base pairs long with either circular or linear arrangement. Bacteriophages are much smaller than the bacteria they destroy – usually between 20 and 200 nm in size.
