Bacteriophage Ecology Group

Bacteriophage Ecology Group Bacteriophage Ecology Group

Infected Bacteria

 

Cells to which phages have successfully adsorbed.

Infected bacteria, of course, are as can be contrasted with uninfected bacteria. This can be seen, for example, in mathematical models of phage population growth and/or phage-bacterial interactions such as in chemostats.

Note that infection here can be seen a relative concept. Thus, especially, a bacterium that harbors a prophage, that is, a bacterial lysogen, can still be described as an uninfected bacterium until adsorbed and subsequently infected by an additional phage, thereby resulting in a lysogen that is only now regarded as an infected bacterium (though which also can be described as superinfected).

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