Question

What is a bacteriophage?
1. A virus
2. A bacterium growing in artificial nutrient medium
3. A fungus causing disease
4. A phagocytic protozoa

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : A virus

The correct answer is A virus.

• A bacteriophage is a type of virus that infects bacteria.
• The word "bacteriophage" literally means "bacteria eater", because bacteriophages destroy their host cells.
• The bacteriophage hijacks the bacterium's cellular machinery to prevent it from producing bacterial components and instead forces the cell to produce viral components.
• The new bacteriophages assemble and burst out of the bacterium in a process called lysis.
• Bacteriophages occasionally remove a portion of their host cells' bacterial DNA during the infection process and then transfer this DNA into the genome of new host cells.
  • This process is known as transduction.