You mentioned that temperate phages are not always good at treating bacterial infections because they don’t always lyse cells. Can you please explain that a little bit more and why that means they are not effective in treating them?
Temperate phages can undergo the lytic life cycle or the lysogenic life cycle. In the lysogenic cycle, the phage DNA is incorporated into the host genome and in the lytic cycle, the phage lyses, or kills, the host cell. A temperate phage is not as effective in treating a bacterial infection because it does not always undergo the lytic cycle, meaning that it will not kill the infection, whereas lytic phages can only undergo the lytic cycle.
Great presentation! If you were able to re-do your digest what might the results look like for different cluster groups? Are you expecting to find anything in particular given the data you have already collected and what would this tell you about the phage? As a temperate phage will this phage do you think it will be useful in development to fight against antibiotic resistant strains?
Thank you for your questions! Since we did not get any results from our restriction digest, we would need to redo it the same way in order to first form a cluster prediction,, which would provide us with further information about our phage. We are not expecting to find anything specific based on the information we already have, but a successful restriction digest would allow us to determine a cluster prediction. In terms of our phage being used to fight antibiotic resistant infections, several more experiments would need to be performed to determine if it could be used and if it could, it would most likely need to be genetically modified to ensure that it undergoes the lytic life cycle.
Lytic phages are typically used for phage therapy because they can only undergo the lytic lifecycle, at the end of which, they kill the host. Temperate phages have a slower rate of infection because it can undergo the lysogenic cycle and then stop, or it can then proceed into the lytic cycle. If further experiments were performed and it was determined that our phage could potentially be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it would need to be genetically modified in order to do so.
Hi! Phage therapy is an alternative to antibiotics, as many bacterial infections have formed an antibiotic resistance. It is an effective therapy because phages are naturally occurring, and are not harmful to humans. It’s important to continue research on phage therapy, because it could be a safer alternative to antibiotic treatment.
You mentioned that temperate phages are not always good at treating bacterial infections because they don’t always lyse cells. Can you please explain that a little bit more and why that means they are not effective in treating them?
Temperate phages can undergo the lytic life cycle or the lysogenic life cycle. In the lysogenic cycle, the phage DNA is incorporated into the host genome and in the lytic cycle, the phage lyses, or kills, the host cell. A temperate phage is not as effective in treating a bacterial infection because it does not always undergo the lytic cycle, meaning that it will not kill the infection, whereas lytic phages can only undergo the lytic cycle.
Great presentation! If you were able to re-do your digest what might the results look like for different cluster groups? Are you expecting to find anything in particular given the data you have already collected and what would this tell you about the phage? As a temperate phage will this phage do you think it will be useful in development to fight against antibiotic resistant strains?
Thank you for your questions! Since we did not get any results from our restriction digest, we would need to redo it the same way in order to first form a cluster prediction,, which would provide us with further information about our phage. We are not expecting to find anything specific based on the information we already have, but a successful restriction digest would allow us to determine a cluster prediction. In terms of our phage being used to fight antibiotic resistant infections, several more experiments would need to be performed to determine if it could be used and if it could, it would most likely need to be genetically modified to ensure that it undergoes the lytic life cycle.
How does the temperate aspect of your phage affect the possibility of it being used to further treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Lytic phages are typically used for phage therapy because they can only undergo the lytic lifecycle, at the end of which, they kill the host. Temperate phages have a slower rate of infection because it can undergo the lysogenic cycle and then stop, or it can then proceed into the lytic cycle. If further experiments were performed and it was determined that our phage could potentially be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it would need to be genetically modified in order to do so.
Hello! Why is phage therapy an effective therapy and why should it become more widespread?
Hi! Phage therapy is an alternative to antibiotics, as many bacterial infections have formed an antibiotic resistance. It is an effective therapy because phages are naturally occurring, and are not harmful to humans. It’s important to continue research on phage therapy, because it could be a safer alternative to antibiotic treatment.