Bacteriophages: Biology and Applications ; แบคเทอริโอเฟจ: ชีววิทยาและการประยุกต์ใช้

Bacteriophages or phages are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages are the most abundant viral entity on earth and exist in all the ecosystems. Bacteriophages were discovered over one hundred year ago. Like other types of viruses, bacteriophages vary in their shape and genetic material (genome). Bacteriophage genomes can consist of either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein coat. The capsid of a bacteriophage can be polyhedral, filamentous or head-tail structure. To start an infection, a bacteriophage virion has to first attach onto the surface of their host cell by the recognition of receptors on its host and phage attachment protein. In host cell, bacteriophages can propagate in two possible life cycles; lytic cycle and lysogenic cycle. International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) classifies the bacteriophages under an order Caudovirales according to morphology and nucleic acid type. Over 96% of bacteriophages are tailed and contain double-stranded DNA. After the discovery of bacteriophages, many researchers thought about the potential of bacteriophages on killing bacteria, which could possibly make them as therapeutic agents. But most of this research effort stopped soon after the discovery of antibiotics. Today, bacteriophages have become an important instrument to biotechnologist. They have been exploited for various purposes like cloning vectors for gene cloning, antibacterial agents for controlling of infection, and effective diagnostics for detection of bacterial pathogens. They are also being used for phage display systems for revealing the peptide of interest on phage coat protein. In this review article all these applications have been summarized. ; แบคเทอริโอเฟจหรือเฟจคือไวรัสที่บุกรุกแบคทีเรีย แบคเทอริโอเฟจมีอยู่เป็นจำนวนมากบนโลกและพบอาศัยอยู่ในทุกระบบนิเวศ แบคเทอริโอเฟจถูกค้นพบมานานกว่าร้อยปี คุณสมบัติของแบคเทอริโอเฟจไม่ต่างจากไวรัสโดยทั่วไปคือมีความหลากหลายทั้งในด้านรูปร่างและชนิดของสารพันธุกรรม สารพันธุกรรมของแบคเทอริโอเฟจอาจเป็น DNA หรือ RNA ...