Clokie Martha Rj, Millard Andrew D, Letarov Andrey V, Heaphy Shaun
Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation; Medical Sciences Building; University of Leicester; Leicester, UK.
Bacteriophage. 2011 Jan;1(1):31-45. doi: 10.4161/bact.1.1.14942.
Bacteriophages or phages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere and they are a ubiquitous feature of prokaryotic existence. A bacteriophage is a virus which infects a bacterium. Archaea are also infected by viruses, whether these should be referred to as 'phages' is debatable, but they are included as such in the scope this article. Phages have been of interest to scientists as tools to understand fundamental molecular biology, as vectors of horizontal gene transfer and drivers of bacterial evolution, as sources of diagnostic and genetic tools and as novel therapeutic agents. Unraveling the biology of phages and their relationship with their hosts is key to understanding microbial systems and their exploitation. In this article we describe the roles of phages in different host systems and show how modeling, microscopy, isolation, genomic and metagenomic based approaches have come together to provide unparalleled insights into these small but vital constituents of the microbial world.
噬菌体是生物圈中数量最为丰富的生物体，是原核生物生存中普遍存在的一个特征。噬菌体是一种感染细菌的病毒。古细菌也会被病毒感染，这些病毒是否应被称为“噬菌体”尚有争议，但在本文范围内也将其包括在内。噬菌体一直是科学家们感兴趣的对象，它们可作为理解基础分子生物学的工具、水平基因转移的载体和细菌进化的驱动力、诊断和基因工具的来源以及新型治疗剂。阐明噬菌体的生物学特性及其与宿主的关系是理解微生物系统及其开发利用的关键。在本文中，我们描述了噬菌体在不同宿主系统中的作用，并展示了基于建模、显微镜观察、分离、基因组学和宏基因组学的方法如何结合起来，为这些微生物世界中虽小却至关重要的组成部分提供了无与伦比的见解。
