Title:Bacteriophages: from Isolation to Application
Volume: 23
Issue: 3
Author(s): Abdallah Abdelsattar, Alyaa Dawoud, Salsabil Makky , Rana Nofal, Ramy K. Aziz and Ayman El-Shibiny*
Affiliation:
- Center for Microbiology and Phage Therapy, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, 6th of October
City, Giza, 12578, Egypt
- Faculty of Environmental Agricultural Sciences, Arish University,
Arish, 45615, Egypt
Keywords:
Bacteriophage, phage therapy, bacteriophage purification, phage isolation, phage applications, bioinformatic tools, prophage, phage annotation, virion, electron microscopy, foodborne illnesses.
Abstract: Bacteriophages are considered as a potential alternative to fight pathogenic bacteria during the
antibiotic resistance era. With their high specificity, they are widely used in various applications: medicine,
food industry, agriculture, animal farms, biotechnology, diagnosis, etc. Many techniques have been
designed by different researchers for phage isolation, purification, and amplification, each of which has
strengths and weaknesses. However, all aim at having a reasonably pure phage sample that can be further
characterized. Phages can be characterized based on their physiological, morphological or inactivation
tests. Microscopy, in particular, opened a wide gate, not only for visualizing phage morphological
structure, but also for monitoring biochemistry and behavior. Meanwhile, computational analysis of
phage genomes provides more details about phage history, lifestyle, and the potential for toxigenic or
lysogenic conversion, which translate to safety in biocontrol and phage therapy applications. This review
article summarizes phage application pipelines at different levels, and addresses specific restrictions and
knowledge gaps in the field. Recently developed computational approaches, which are used in phage
genome analysis, are critically assessed. We hope that this assessment provides researchers with useful
insights for the selection of suitable approaches for phage-related research aims and applications.