🔬 Virulent Phage

Discussion

<p>As the concept of phage virulence has a somewhat tortured and wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambiguity" target="_blank" class="bap-term">ambiguous history, it is my preference to limit the use of the term "virulent" as applied to phages. Instead of virulent phage my preference is to use obligately lytic phage or, if appropriate, professionally lytic phage since otherwise it can become confusing to distinguish the potential for phages to destroy bacterial Culture (microbiology)">cultures (phage virulence), which is highly relevant to the practice of phage therapy, from the potential for phages to fail to display lysogeny (virulent phage). See also simply virulence.

The definition from Adams (1959) for "virulent phage" (p. 442) is "A phage that lacks the ability to lysogenize. When known to have originated by mutation from a temperate phage, it is called a virulent mutant." In the same monograph, p. 432, note this statement: "A virulent phage could thus be a virulent mutant of a yet unknown temperate phage." The term virulent phage, depending on context, thus can describe both temperate phage mutants, phages that have descended from temperate phages with numerous mutations separating them from an ability to display lysogenic cycles, and phages that effectively are unrelated to temperate phages.

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