A phage that is long and thin in morphology.
Filamentous phages produces chronic productive infections, releasing phage progeny via extrusion rather than via budding. They are members of phage family Inoviridae. Coliphage M13 is a prominent example.
Filamentous phages are mostly or entirely non-bactericidal, though can be modified genetically – that is, via genetic engineering – to instead kill their hosts (resulting, if this occurs prior to phage production, in an abortive infection). More typically, from a biotechnology perspective, filamentous phages instead are employed in phage display and/or biopanning where foreign genes are cloned into especially phage M13 capsid proteins.
In addition to phage M13, filamentous phages include…
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