Introducing Students to Research: Electron Microscopy of Bacteriophages

Abstract

Bacteriophages, as the name “bacteria-eater” suggests, are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages, often abbreviated as “phages,” have receptors that bind to specific bacterial species, thus there are many types of bacteriophages. Once a phage interacts with its target bacterium, the phage injects its genetic material into the bacterial host where the phage is replicated to produce many new phages that then leave the host via cell lysis.