General Overview of Bacterial Viruses

Most of the bacterial viruses which have been studied in any detail infect bacteria of the enteric group, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. However, viruses are known that infect a variety of procaryotes, both eubacteria and archaebacteria. A few bacterial viruses have lipid envelopes but most do not. However, 

It should already be clear from what has been stated that a great diversity of viruses exist. It should therefore not be surprising that there is also a great diversity in the manner by which virus multiplication occurs. Interestingly, many viruses have special features of their nucleic acid and protein synthesis processes that are not found in cells. In the present chapter, we are only able to present some of the major types of virus replication patterns, and must skip some of the interesting exceptional cases. 

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