Definition of bacteriophage in English:
bacteriophage
noun bakˈtɪərɪə(ʊ)feɪdʒbækˈtɪriəˌfeɪdʒ
Biology A virus which parasitizes a bacterium by infecting it and reproducing inside it. Bacteriophages are much used in genetic research.
Example sentencesExamples
- Suitable vectors are the DNAs of bacterial viruses or bacteriophages which naturally infect bacteria and replicate within them.
- Those viruses, called bacteriophages, specifically infect bacteria, capture some of their genes, and transfer the genes from one microbe to the next.
- For a subset of these viruses, including many tailed bacteriophages and the herpes viruses, the concatemers are cut at specific sites to generate unit-length virion chromosomes.
- The genome contains four sections inserted by bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and splice their genes into the bacterial DNA.
- However, another promising approach is to use bacterial viruses knows as bacteriophages to produce vaccines very rapidly and cheaply.
Origin
1920s: from bacterium + Greek phagein 'eat'.
Definition of bacteriophage in US English:
bacteriophage
nounbækˈtɪriəˌfeɪdʒbakˈtirēəˌfāj
Biology A virus that parasitizes a bacterium by infecting it and reproducing inside it.
Example sentencesExamples
- Suitable vectors are the DNAs of bacterial viruses or bacteriophages which naturally infect bacteria and replicate within them.
- For a subset of these viruses, including many tailed bacteriophages and the herpes viruses, the concatemers are cut at specific sites to generate unit-length virion chromosomes.
- Those viruses, called bacteriophages, specifically infect bacteria, capture some of their genes, and transfer the genes from one microbe to the next.
- However, another promising approach is to use bacterial viruses knows as bacteriophages to produce vaccines very rapidly and cheaply.
- The genome contains four sections inserted by bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and splice their genes into the bacterial DNA.
Origin
1920s: from bacterium + Greek phagein ‘eat’.