The dilutions are necessary to get the phage species by itself and also to get the phage to a reasonable concentration to work with. Phage are very small and their numbers can be outstanding if not diluted down.
Good point! Corndog was the name given to a species of phage that we had contaminate much of our sections phage lysates. I did not have it pictured to avoid confusion, however it very much looks like a corndog with a long oblong head and medium to long tail.
Not necessarily, this is more important to classifying the phage to help group them with other similar phage. That group (cluster) is what tells you whether or not it can be used in therapeutics, the cluster tells you what mycobacteria the phage will infect and what application it could be used for.
Absolutely! The repressor gene that keeps the phage from lysing the cell can be modified, essentially meaning we can turn this lysogenic phage into a lytic phage by altering the genome and turning off its repressor gene.
curesymposium.org 
Why do you need to dilute the phage?
LikeLike
The dilutions are necessary to get the phage species by itself and also to get the phage to a reasonable concentration to work with. Phage are very small and their numbers can be outstanding if not diluted down.
LikeLike
The only word I think you used and didn’t define was corndog! What is it?
LikeLike
Good point! Corndog was the name given to a species of phage that we had contaminate much of our sections phage lysates. I did not have it pictured to avoid confusion, however it very much looks like a corndog with a long oblong head and medium to long tail.
LikeLike
What’s the importance of the phage being a siphoviridae phage? Will it affect whether or not it can be used for therapeutics?
LikeLike
Not necessarily, this is more important to classifying the phage to help group them with other similar phage. That group (cluster) is what tells you whether or not it can be used in therapeutics, the cluster tells you what mycobacteria the phage will infect and what application it could be used for.
LikeLike
Do you believe it is worth it to research this phage further despite its lysogenic life cycle?
LikeLike
Absolutely! The repressor gene that keeps the phage from lysing the cell can be modified, essentially meaning we can turn this lysogenic phage into a lytic phage by altering the genome and turning off its repressor gene.
LikeLike