The step in a phage life cycle that immediately precedes phage attachment to a bacterium (reversible adsorption) but which does not necessarily lead to such adsorption.
Depending on author, encounter may or may not denote phage-bacterium physical contact, i.e., collision.
Encounter additionally can be used to describe phage interaction with objects that are other than individual bacteria such as with surfaces, EPS, and biofilms.
For additional consideration of the impact of encounter frequencies on phage ecology, see Murray and Jackson (1992), the appendix of Goodridge (2008), Hagens and Loessner (2010), and Abedon (2011).
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