58.1k views
1 vote
A virus that infects bacteria is called?

A: prophage
B: bacteriophage
C: endospore
D: retrovirus

User Cypherabe
by
5.0k points

2 Answers

1 vote

Final answer:

A virus that infects bacteria is known as a bacteriophage. Bacteriophages can infect bacterial cells and replicate using either the lytic or lysogenic cycles, with examples including T4 and lambda viruses respectively.

Step-by-step explanation:

A virus that infects bacteria is called a bacteriophage. Bacteriophages are viruses that bind to surface receptors on a bacterial cell to inject their genome, initiating an infection. This can result in a productive infection, where new virus particles are created and released as the cell bursts in a lytic cycle, such as with the T4 bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli.

Alternatively, the bacteriophage may enter a lysogenic cycle, where the viral genome integrates with the host's DNA, becoming a prophage, and replicates along with the host cell's genome without harming it. An example of this is the lambda virus. Thus, the correct answer to the question is B: bacteriophage.

User Robin Andersson
by
5.3k points
2 votes

B. Bacteriophage

A bacteriophage is a type of virus that infects bacteria

User SilentKiller
by
5.0k points