Viruses
From Disease-causing to Medicinal Organisms (Bacteria have viruses: Bacteriophages)
A Bacteriophage is a virus which infects bacteria. In particular, the Bacteriophage T4 is a virus which infects E.Coli, a bacterium that has been used extensively for molecular biology research
Once inside the cell, the viral nucleic acid converts the cell into a virus-making factory and uses the cell's synthetic machinery to manufacture viral nucleic acid and protein components of the phage coat
Mature viruses accumulate in the cell until there are perhaps 100.
The cell then lyses (bursts) and releases its contents into the medium
If uninfected bacteria are available, the progeny phage particles will attach to them and repeat the cycle of infection until finally all the cells are lysed….