Questions tagged [bacteriophage]
Bacteriophage (phage) are viruses that infect bacteria, though some definitions include viruses that infect prokaryotes more broadly (bacteria and archaea). They are distinct from eukaryotic viruses in their morphology and evolutionary history.
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How to understand restriction mapping a quarter of a century later?
Today, biology is virtually all based on massively parallel sequencing, long-strand sequencing, and metagenomic; looking back at old restriction mapping is not straightforward (at least for me).
For ...
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How was Campbell's Model of phage lambda integration into E. coli definitively proven?
In a series of seminal papers summarized in Annual Review in Genetics (2007) 41 1–11, Allan Campbell proposed a model that assumed phage lambda integration in its host (E. coli) genome. This is in ...
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Who demonstrated that phage lamba is integrated into the host chromosome?
In the 1950s, the Lederbergs (Esther and Joshua) demonstrated the presence of phage lamba in Escherichia coli K-12.
But who demonstrated that this virus is integrated into the host's genome? Is there ...
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Who discovered that phage phiX174 has a single-stranded genome?
I have recently read that Erwin Chargaff has discovered that the genome of phage phiX174 (ϕχ174) is single-stranded. However I could not find the paper reporting this discovery.
Is there a link to the ...
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How did the Zinder-Lederberg experiment on Transduction work?
In the paper that introduced TRANSDUCTION (J Bacteriol. 1952 Nov;64(5):679-699), Lederberg and his student Zinder reported that S. typhimurium
"LT-22 is lysogenic for a virus active on LT-2. ...
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Is there a way to isolate bacteria from a bacteria/phage plaque in order to PCR bacteria only?
I am writing a paper for a class that involves a mock grant proposal. I am looking at an experiment which requires sequencing of host DNA from a virus/host model, and am having a hard time finding a ...
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How to calculate phage infection rate from decreased PFU counts?
Some experiments measured the effect of particular chemicals on the infectivity of lytic phages in terms of influence on the PFU/mL counts.
For example, the reduction of PFU/mL of exposed phages over ...
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Is there a way to lyse bacteriophage with just heat?
I basically want the virus to fall apart into pieces. I want the capsid proteins to separate from the tail proteins and the DNA to all tumble out. I want all of the virus proteins, structural and DNA, ...
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Has there been evidence that there has been coevolution in E. Coli strains with the T4 bacteriophage?
According to Evolution of T4-related phages, there have been multiple instances of evolution in the T4 coliphages. Per the article, there are many T-even phages that have insertions from other ...
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Is there a standard protocol for isolating bacteriophages from biofilm?
We are planning to screen soil, water, and biofilm for mycobacteriophages, particularly the environments where the bacteria have been found in the past.
We have already isolated phages from soil but ...
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Why does adding calcium chloride aid in bacteriophage infection?
We are attempting to isolate bacteriophages from environmental soil samples and most protocols recommend adding CaCl2 to the media to aid bacteriophage infection, even though they all recommend ...
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Does centrifuging and filtering supernatant confer an advantage compared to just filtering?
We are trying to isolate bacteriophages from environmental soil samples. One of the first steps is elution, centrifugation and filtering of the soil samples.
One protocol suggests to:
Elute the soil ...
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Why do bacteriophages look like tiny little robots? [closed]
I get it, evolution is funny and works in mysterious ways. But come on. You can't tell me this thing doesn't look like a nanobot.
Why do bacteriophages look this way? With their cylindrical heads and ...
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How can I change the payload of a bacteriophage used to transform E. coli?
I was looking at bacteriophages and how they're used to transform E.coli. While the whole process of how a bacteriophage works makes sense theoretically, I wanted to know how one goes about changing ...
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How did plaques form in Salvador Luria's Bacteriophage experiment (discovery of restriction enzymes)?
I was watching Eric Lander's lecture online describing Luria's experiment (see below for link), and I couldn't understand how plaques form. From my understanding,
Bacteriophage infect strain B
Viral ...
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Can you design a bacteriophage that attacks the part of the bacteria that makes them antibiotics resistant?
I read in a newspaper about a case where they had found a virus that could attack a specific form of antibiotics-resistant bacteria and managed to save a girl from a certain death by "infecting her" ...
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Why don't phage vectors lyse mammalian cells?
I have read many articles on bacteriophages (like the lambda phage1) being used for transferring genes into mammalian cells, but none of them mention any sort of lysis of the cells even though in ...
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Can a bacteriophage be used to treat bacterial diseases?
Some bacteriophages reproduce using the lytic cycle which ends with the destruction of the host bacterial cell. I was wondering if theoretically this could be used therapeutically to treat bacterial ...
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