The Efficacy of Induced vs. Artificial Bacteriophage Lambda on the E. coli K12 Strain

The advent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has prompted scientists to search for alternatives to combat infections. A leading alternative to antibiotics is bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages. A major drawback to the usage of bacteriophages are the potential for the virus to enter the lysogenic cycle. Bacteriophages go through the lysogenic cycle when there is a lack of potential hosts to infect causing them to enter a dormant stage and not infect other bacterial cells. The lytic cycle, which is more advantageous for phage therapy, is when the virus replicates itself within the bacteria eventually killing the host when the newly replicated bacteriophages lyse the cell and are released. This process occurs when there are other hosts readily available to continue reproducing. Though most phage researchers have explored the genetic and mechanical side of the virus, such as the effects of the RecA protein and ultraviolet light on the cycle the bacteriophage goes through, very few have investigated the application of those studies on phage therapy