Bacteriophages Infecting Lactic Acid Bacteria

Bacterio (phages), that is, viral agents that infect bacteria, represent the most abundant biological entity on our planet and are found in essentially every ecological niche that supports bacterial life (Brüssow and Hendrix, 2002; Chibani-Chennoufi et al., 2004). These bacterial parasites are acellular, composed of a nucleic acid core (single-stranded DNA, double-stranded DNA or RNA) and require the host’s DNA synthesis and protein production abilities to effectively replicate and produce progeny viral particles. Phages were discovered nearly one hundred years ago in the early 20th century, when a young British scientist named Frederick Twort was carrying out work on cultivating viruses on synthetic growth medium at the Brown Institute, University of London. The term “bacteriophage” (eaters of bacteria) was first coined by French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d’Herelle in 1917 and today both Twort and d’Herelle are credited with the discovery of phages.