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Bacteriophage Mu
Bacteriophage Mu, also known as mu phage or mu bacteriophage, is a muvirus (the first of its kind to be identified) of the family ''Myoviridae'' which has been shown to cause genetic transposition. It is of particular importance as its discovery in ''Escherichia coli'' by Larry Taylor was among the first observations of insertion elements in a genome. This discovery opened up the world to an investigation of transposable elements and their effects on a wide variety of organisms. While Mu was specifically involved in several distinct areas of research (including ''E. coli'', maize, and HIV), the wider implications of transposition and insertion transformed the entire field of genetics. Anatomy Phage Mu is nonenveloped, with a head and a tail. The head has an icosahedral structure of about 54 nm in width. The neck is knob-like, and the tail is contractile with a base plate and six short terminal fibers. The genome has been fully sequenced and consists of 36,717 nucleotides, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacteriophage
A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structures that are either simple or elaborate. Their genomes may encode as few as four genes (e.g. MS2) and as many as hundreds of genes. Phages replicate within the bacterium following the injection of their genome into its cytoplasm. Bacteriophages are among the most common and diverse entities in the biosphere. Bacteriophages are ubiquitous viruses, found wherever bacteria exist. It is estimated there are more than 1031 bacteriophages on the planet, more than every other organism on Earth, including bacteria, combined. Viruses are the most abundant biological entity in the water column of the world's oceans, and the second largest component of biom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
