(phage) Any virus that infects bacteria. Bacteriophages are often named according to the bacteria they infect, e.g. actinophages, which infect bacteria of the order Actinomycetales, and coliphages, which infect various strains of Escherichia coli. All RNA phages bring about the death of the host cell by lysis. Some DNA phages (the temperate phages) become integrated in the host DNA and are replicated with it. Some temperate phages, e.g. the lambda virus, have been shown to transfer genes from one bacterium to another in a process termed * transduction. |
