Abstract
Initially described a century ago by William Twort and Felix d’Herelle, bacteriophages are bacterial viruses found ubiquitously in nature, located wherever their host cells are present. Translated literally, bacteriophage (phage) means ‘bacteria eater’. Phages interact and infect specific bacteria while not affecting other bacteria or cell lines of other organisms. Due to the specificity of these phage–host interactions, the relationship between phages and their host cells has been the topic of much research. The advances in phage biology research have led to the exploitation of these phage–host interactions and the application of phages in the agricultural and food industry. Phages may provide an alternative to the use of antibiotics, as it is well known that the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections has become an epidemic in clinical settings. In agriculture, pre-harvest and/or post-harvest application of phages to crops may prevent the colonisation of bacteria that are detrimental to plant or human health. In addition, the abundance of data generated from genome sequencing has allowed the development of phage-derived bacterial detection systems of foodborne pathogens. This review aims to outline the specific interactions between phages and their host and how these interactions may be exploited and applied in the food industry.
Highlights
Phages are the most abundant microorganisms in the biosphere, with an estimated 4.8 × 1031 phage particles present
E.membrane coli via two modes, OmpC-dependent study performed ofWashizaki
The results showed that the addition of a glutathione S-transferase (GST) tag prior to immobilization of gp48 provided optimal orientation on the surface which improves the subsequent host capture in comparison to techniques based on random orientation
Summary
Phages are the most abundant microorganisms in the biosphere, with an estimated 4.8 × 1031 phage particles present. Phages are present in all areas where bacteria thrive and play a significant role in population dynamics of microbes in the majority of ecosystems and in the evolution of their bacterial and archaeal host cells. Phages are specific viruses of bacteria that hijack the bacteria’s metabolic mechanisms in order to replicate, which, in the case of lytic phages, subsequently leads to the death of the host cell [2]. The recognition that phages were responsible for Twort’s observation was only made following the pioneering work of Felix d’Herelle [3]. Chemical analyses of Viruses 2019, 11, 567; doi:10.3390/v11060567 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses
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