Bacteriophage attack

The only immediate recourse to a bacteriophage attack is to substitute at once an immune strain if one is available. If one is not available, it is better to produce another product while the microbiologists in the culture laboratory isolate a new strain of culture which is resistant to the phage. This usually requires several weeks, which must include yield testing as well as new master lots of reserve culture. 

It is remarkable that bacteriophages have been obtained in a state of purity rivaling the best preparations of crystallizable proteins. Indeed, the first highly purified virus prepared in quantity was a bacteriophage attacking E. coli (Schlesinger, 275). 

Sillankorva, S., Azeredo, J., 2014. Bacteriophage attack as an anti-biofihn strategy. Methods Mol. Biol. 1147, 277-285. 

Viruses are discussed more fully elsewhere (Chapter 3). However, there are certain groups of viruses, called bacteriophages (phages), which can attack bacteria. This attack involves the injechon of viral DNA into baeterial eells which then proceed to make new virus particles and destroy eells. Some viruses, known as temperate viruses, do not cause this catastrophic event when they infect their host, but can pass genetic material from one cell to another. 

Synthetic capped mRNAs are useful tools to study all of the processes mentioned previously. To create capped mRNAs, DNA templates are transcribed with either a bacterial (Contreras etal., 1982) or bacteriophage (Konarska et al., 1984 Yisraeli and Melton, 1989) RNA polymerase in the presence of all four ribonucleoside triphosphates and a synthetic cap dinucleotide, m7Gp3G. The polymerase initiates transcription with a nucleophilic attack by the 3 -OH of the Guo moiety ofm7Gp3G on the a-phosphate... 

Arber s work was inspired by an earlier discovery of the famous Italian-American microbiologist Salvador Luria (1912-1991). In 1942, Luria discovered that bacteria, like humans, seem to have mechanisms for protecting themselves from attacking viruses. Viruses that infect bacteria have a special name bacteriophages. Arber discovered that this defensive system consisted of two parts (1) a group of enzymes (restriction enzymes) that... 

Abstract This review describes the use of bacteriophages against bacterial infections in the battlefield and protection of the civilian population. High therapeutic and protective potential of bacteriophages suggests that they could be an efficient means against bio-terrorist attacks. 

Temperate bacteriophage, the best known being phage X, have a very different life cycle. Their DNA usually becomes integrated at a specific point into the genome of the bacterium (Chapter 27). Only rarely is an infected cell lysed. The retroviruses that attack mammals and birds have a similar characteristic. 

Becker and Hurwitz 94) have found that after infection of E. coli B with T-even bacteriophages a novel 3 -deoxynucleotidase activity appears. They purified the enzyme 2000-fold. In addition to its attack on 3 -deoxymononucleotides, the enzyme selectively removes the 3 -phos-phoryl groups from DNA. It does not attack 3 -ribonucleotides, 3 -phosphoryl groups of RNA, or 5 -phosphate esters. Like bacterial 5 -nucleotidases, this enzyme is markedly activated by Mg2+ and Co2+ and is inhibited by EDTA. The enzyme appears to be a phage-induced enzyme the activity rises early after injection with T-even phages and formation of the enzyme is blocked with chloramphenicol. 

In contrast to OmpX the long external loops of OmpA are highly mobile and, on the whole, not visible in the respective electron density map. In vivo, the mobile loops are rather resistant to proteolytic attack, presumably because they bind to the surrounding lipopolysac-charides. Obviously, the mobile loops fulfill essential functions in bacterial life (Morona et al., 1984). They are also known as docking points for bacteriophages. 

Bacteriophage are a type of virus that attacks bacteria. 

It has long been known that bacteria are susceptible to attack by viruses known as bacteriophages ( eaters of bacteria ). The presence of restriction enzymes in bacteria is part of the defense system against bacteriophages that has evolved in these bacteria. These highly specific enzymes will scan DNA until a certain sequence of nucleotide bases is identified. The specificity is... 

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