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Updated: Jun 19, 2025

Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
Published on: June 11, 2015
Microbe Profile: Bacteriophage ϕ6: a model for segmented RNA viruses and the evolutionary consequences of viral 'sex'
Paul E Turner1,2,3, Lin Chao4
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Abstract:
Bacteriophage ϕ6 is a segmented dsRNA virus with a lipid envelope, which are unusual traits in bacterial viruses but common in eukaryotic viruses. This uniqueness allowed ϕ6 and its Pseudomonad hosts to serve as a molecular model for RNA genetics, mutation, replication, packaging, and reassortment in both bacterial and eukaryotic viruses. However, an additional uniqueness of ϕ6, created by its high mutation rate, was its use as an experimental system to study key questions such as the evolution of sex (segment reassortment), host-pathogen interactions, mutational load, rates of adaptation, genetic and phenotypic complexity, and game theory.
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