Bacteriophages

Lambda comes from a bacteriophage, but is harmless to humans and other eukaryotic organisms. Lambda has approximately 48,000 base linear pairs. Three common restriction enzymes: EcoRI, HindIII and PstI are used to separate the DNA fragments. The task at hand was to separate the…

process to see how it would react with the phage. From doing this they discovered protein coats that protect the DNA, and found that the DNA was not absorbed to the phage bacteria. They then experimented with the process of thawing and freezing the bacteriophage and discovered that the DNA is more sensitive to the DNAse when no growth is taking place. Hershey and Chase then, proceeding in the direction of infecting cells, used the blender experiment to suspend these infected cells. From this…

The material covered in my genetics class helped me better understand the article, How Spiders Got their Knees, by Emily DeMarco. For example, the article describes how the Dachshund gene was duplicated and activated in the patella region which formed kneecaps, providing flexibility (DeMarco, 2015). In class I learned about the different types of errors that can occur during DNA replication and repair. I learned that duplication can occur through replication slippage or unequal crossing over.…

Phage therapy has been a debated for many years. The discovery of bacteriophages in the 20th century by Frederick Twort and Felix D’Herelle led to contributions of many fields in science [1]. Such contribution can lead to curative methods for bacterial infections. Antibiotics are primarily the source to help with infections, but phage therapy has been in discussion for an option to replace antibiotics. The reason why it has been debated is that the limitations of phages due to its biological…

lost in the open tube. Although the exact temperature and the duration of heating is not known, it appears that Hankin might have used a considerable temperature for a long duration that would have killed all biological substances, including bacteriophages, except perhaps bacterial endospores (Abedon et al, 2011).…

Another additive to vaccinations is bovine (cow) serum that is frequently used as a growth medium for vaccinations. It is also the most often animal serum that gets contaminated with bacteriophage. Another troubling factor from the CDC and FDA is, vaccinations are not recommended for pregnant women. However, the package inserts for the vaccinations clearly state that the effects of the vaccine on the fetus remains unknown since they have not been tested the vaccines on pregnant women before. The…

of the membrane of a cell, often by viral, enzyme, or osmotic mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a lysate. Lysogenic: the biological process in which a bacterium is infected by a bacteriophage that integrates its DNA into that of the host such that the host is not destroyed. Virulence: the degree of…

Bacteria employ a few mechanisms to gain antibiotic resistance. One of these – a mutation – involves spontaneous changes within the amino acids of their DNA, which ultimately elicits a modification to a certain gene. The change within the DNA would prevent an antibiotic being used to hinder the bacteria, as it could would no longer recognize the specimen, due to a change in the structure of the target gene. A species of bacteria may also use a method of destruction to chemically degrade or…

living host. Once it invades a host (a bacteria 's body), it acts as a parasite. It uses the bacteria 's metabolism to develop and grow. Meanwhile, it destroys the bacteria by disintegrating the cell 's membrane. This process is known as bacteriophage (bacteriophage, 2003). When a bacterial virus enters an insect, animal, or human, it can transform into what we call a bacterial infection. Bacterial viruses could spread but would never become an infection if it did not enter a living organism…

Chemotaxis is the directional migration of cells in response to a chemical stimulus. The movement of these cells can either be directed towards favourable chemicals (chemoattractants) or unfavourable chemicals (chemorepellents). In particular, sugars and amino acids can attract many species of bacteria via chemotaxis, and the main method used to identify these chemicals is an assay that uses a glass capillary (Abe et al., 2017). In the capillary assay, the outer chamber contains mobile cells…