🔬 Ghost

A phage virion that lacks class="bap-term">nucleic acid, which can be removed, for example, via osmotic shock.

by Stephen T. Abedon Ph.D. (abedon.1@osu.edu)

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About this entry: Ghost is one of a growing set of phage biology and phage therapy terms defined here. For more phage terms, see Abedon, S.T. (2025). Phage Therapy Annotated Glossary. Preprints.org. 10.20944/preprints202508.0347.v1

phage.org/terms/ghost.html · Abedon’s Books · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20173633

How can I improve this page? contact: terms@phage.org

Ghost: A phage virion that lacks class="bap-term">nucleic acid, which can be removed, for example, via osmotic shock.

Discussion

<p>T4 phage infections display an "immunity" to the disruptive consequences of secondary adsorption by class="bap-term">phage T4 ghosts. For classical references on phage ghosts and especially immunity to them, see Abedon (1994).

This is the definition from Adams (1959), p. 440: "A phage particle that appears empty in the electron microscope. In several instances ghosts are known to lack nucleic acid."

External links

Wikipedia Google PubMed Google Scholar

References

Abedon (1994).
Adams (1959). Bacteriophages. Interscience Publishers, New York.

How to cite this page

Abedon, S.T. (2026). Phage Terms. https://terms.phage.org · 10.5281/zenodo.20173633

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Ghost — terms.phage.org — phage.org — Stephen T. Abedon — Version 2026.05.14