Host Range

Abedon, Stephen T.

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20173633

🔬 Host Range

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

About this entry: Host Range 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

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

Host Range: The bacterial types (strains or species) that are susceptible to infection by a given phage.

Discussion

<p>The host range of phages typically is relatively narrow, in many cases encompassing just certain strains within a bacterial species though in other cases host range has been found to span multiple genera. Keep in mind, though, that host range breadth can vary depending on how one defines 'infection'. For additional consideration and references, see Hyman and Abedon (2010).

This is the definition from Adams (1959), p. 440, "The range of action of a phage measured in terms of the varieties of bacteria in which it can grow. Host range is often, but not always, determined by success or failure of adsorption."

External links

Wikipedia Google PubMed Google Scholar

References

Hyman and Abedon (2010)
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

[1] Hyman and Abedon (2010)

[2] Adams (1959). Bacteriophages. Interscience Publishers, New York.

🔬 Host Range

Discussion

External links

References

How to cite this page

🔬 Phage Terms — Alphabetical Index

🧮 Phage Biology, Phage Therapy, and Teaching Calculators