What is a bacteriophage?
Q: What is a bacteriophage?
A: A bacteriophage, commonly shortened to phage, is a virus that infects bacteria.
Q: What does the top of a phage look like?
A: The top of a phage has a dice-like shape with 20 sides and 30 edges. Inside it contains the genetic information which is its DNA. This dice-like shape often sits on a tail that has leg-like fibres.
Q: What is the size range of bacteriophages?
A: Bacteriophages are usually between 20 and 200 nanometers in size.
Q: How many genes can be coded for by the genome of phages?
A: Phage genomes may code for as few as four genes, and as many as hundreds of genes.
Q: How do phages replicate inside bacteria?
A: When they attach to the bacterium, they inject their genome into it which uses parts of the bacterium to replicate inside it. When there are many phages inside the bacterium, they put enzymes in the bacterium that weaken its outer cell wall so they can burst through it to infect new bacteria.
Q: Where can we find phages?
A: Phages are everywhere there are bacteria such as soils or intestines of animals and very common in sea water where up to 9x108 virions per milliliter have been found at surface level and up to 70% of marine bacteria may be infected by them.
Q: When was it first discovered what these viruses were made up off?
A: It wasn't until 1939 when Helmut Ruska observed one under an electron microscope that its true nature was established.
