Bacteriophages & biotechnology

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Submitted by lucky_pharmacist on Sun, 05/18/2008 - 05:41.
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Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses consisting of a DNA or RNA genome contained within a protein coat.

They infect bacteria and either incorporate viral DNA into the host genome, replicating as part of the host (lysogeny), or multiply inside the host cell before releasing phage particles either by budding from the membrane or by actively lysing the cell.

Following their discovery and initial characterization in the early twentieth century, there was a flurry of interest in phages once their potential as antibacterial agents was realized. However, following the discovery and general application of antibiotics in the 1930s and 1940s, interest in the practical and therapeutic uses of bacteriophages waned. In the 1950s, bacteriophage research underwent something of a revival, with
phages such as lambda and the T-even series being studied as model systems in the newly-emerging field of molecular genetics – the identification of DNA, the genetic code, mRNA and much of what we now know about gene regulation were all
characterized, initially, in phages.Since then, phages have continued to be studied but, with few exceptions, they have been seen as research tools rather than biologicals of practical importance in their own right.

However, recently there has been a renewed interest in the applied use of bacteriophages in a diverse range of fields, including their use as anti-bacterial agents
(phage therapy), in phage display (where proteins, peptides or antibodies are displayed on the phage surface), in the development of phage-delivered vaccines, as delivery vehicles for gene therapy and the use of a specific phage for bacterial typing.