Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
Published on: June 11, 2015
Biological and bioinformatic tools for the discovery of unknown phage-host combinations
1School of Microbiology & APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Western Road, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland.
Abstract:
The field of microbial ecology has been transformed by metagenomics in recent decades and has culminated in vast datasets that facilitate the bioinformatic dissection of complex microbial communities. Recently, attention has turned from defining the microbiota composition to the interactions and relationships that occur between members of the microbiota. Within complex microbiota, the identification of bacteriophage-host combinations has been a major challenge. Recent developments in artificial intelligence tools to predict protein structure and function as well as the relationships between bacteria and their infecting bacteriophages allow a strategic approach to identifying and validating phage-host relationships. However, biological validation of these predictions remains essential and will serve to improve the existing predictive tools. In this review, I provide an overview of the most recent developments in both bioinformatic and experimental approaches to predicting and experimentally validating unknown phage-host combinations.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Lytic Cycle of Bacteriophages
Lysogenic Cycle of Bacteriophages
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
CRISPR and crRNAs
The CRISPR-Cas system stores a copy of foreign DNA in the host genome and uses it to identify the foreign DNA upon reinfection. CRISPR-Cas has three different...

