We would have to do further research to determine if there actually was a mutation on the repressor gene of our phage. We speculated this as a possible reason as to why the phage changed from temperate to lytic. But, I don’t think anything triggered a mutation, it may have been a part of the phage genome already.
This research could be applied to furthering our understanding of phage therapy and contribute to the continued research into phage therapy. Phage therapy is a method that uses phage to infect antibiotic resistant bacteria, so yes it can be used to further what is possible in medicine. Our phage specifically may be useful in phage therapy because it is lytic and will lyse the antibiotic resistant bacteria. Further research will need to be done to see the host range of our phage so we can see which bacteria our phage could target, and if a patient had an antibiotic resistant bacteria that our phage could combat, then our phage could be used as a possible treatment.
Lytic phages are ideal for combating bacteria because at the end of the lytic cycle, the new phage will lyse out of the cell and kill it. Temperate phages integrate into the bacterial chromosome and do not lyse the cell unless they are triggered to enter the lytic cycle, so they are not ideal for fighting bacterial infections. However, temperate phages could be genetically modified to become lytic. So, going back to your question, I don’t see any benefits from a mutation that causes a phage to change from temperate to lytic because since it started off as temperate then there aren’t any guarantees for how long it could be integrated in the bacterial chromosome, and that wouldn’t be useful when trying to fight off bacteria.
Will it still be safe/applicable to use this phage even though there was a mutation? Or is the mutation random and will not affect the efficacy of the phage?
We would have to do further research to determine if there actually was a mutation on the repressor gene. But, given certain circumstances, it could still be safe to use this phage in treatments like phage therapy because lets say that hypothetically there was a bacterial infection that our phage was able to infect. Our phage may be able to fight off that bacteria. But before using this phage for anything, it would be best to go back and confirm the presence of the mutation or if a mistake was made during the experiments.
curesymposium.org 
What caused the mutation in your phage? Is it something random?
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We would have to do further research to determine if there actually was a mutation on the repressor gene of our phage. We speculated this as a possible reason as to why the phage changed from temperate to lytic. But, I don’t think anything triggered a mutation, it may have been a part of the phage genome already.
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What are the implications of this research? Is there a way this research could be applicable to improving technology/medicine?
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This research could be applied to furthering our understanding of phage therapy and contribute to the continued research into phage therapy. Phage therapy is a method that uses phage to infect antibiotic resistant bacteria, so yes it can be used to further what is possible in medicine. Our phage specifically may be useful in phage therapy because it is lytic and will lyse the antibiotic resistant bacteria. Further research will need to be done to see the host range of our phage so we can see which bacteria our phage could target, and if a patient had an antibiotic resistant bacteria that our phage could combat, then our phage could be used as a possible treatment.
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Would a mutation of a phage from temperate to lytic be a better way to integrate into huge bacterial infections or would it be the same as the lytic?
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Lytic phages are ideal for combating bacteria because at the end of the lytic cycle, the new phage will lyse out of the cell and kill it. Temperate phages integrate into the bacterial chromosome and do not lyse the cell unless they are triggered to enter the lytic cycle, so they are not ideal for fighting bacterial infections. However, temperate phages could be genetically modified to become lytic. So, going back to your question, I don’t see any benefits from a mutation that causes a phage to change from temperate to lytic because since it started off as temperate then there aren’t any guarantees for how long it could be integrated in the bacterial chromosome, and that wouldn’t be useful when trying to fight off bacteria.
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Will it still be safe/applicable to use this phage even though there was a mutation? Or is the mutation random and will not affect the efficacy of the phage?
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We would have to do further research to determine if there actually was a mutation on the repressor gene. But, given certain circumstances, it could still be safe to use this phage in treatments like phage therapy because lets say that hypothetically there was a bacterial infection that our phage was able to infect. Our phage may be able to fight off that bacteria. But before using this phage for anything, it would be best to go back and confirm the presence of the mutation or if a mistake was made during the experiments.
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Is it still safe/applicable to use this phage even though it has a mutation? Or is it random and won’t effect the efficacy of the phage?
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refer to the response to the previous comment
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