Question

Do bacteriophages eat bacteria?

Answer 1

Bacteriophages:

1. Viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria.
2. They do not kill or eat up the host/bacterial cell.
3. However, they infect and transfer their genome into bacterial cells.
4. This forces bacterial cellular machinery to replicate and create more copies of the bacteriophage genome.
5. At later stages, the bacterial cell ruptures to release the multiplied copy of the bacteriophage genome(lysis stage).
6. However, in some cases(lysogenic cycle), this genome can integrate into the bacterial genome and remains dormant for some time.
7. Whenever conditions are suitable, the dormant genome becomes active to lyse the cell and get released to infect other bacterial cells.
8. Example- Phi X 174, P1 phage, etc.