Overview and future potential in structural studies of bacteriophages by cryogenic electron microscopy

Recent advances in biological specimen preparation, electron optics, and image processing software have led to explosive growth in structural biology, in particular, in bacteriophage structural studies in situ. Bacteriophages are microscopical organisms and represent the most populated biological system in the world. Here, we review the history of bacteriophage discovery, progress elucidating bacteriophage structure, the current state of the art, and the prospect for future development. We highlight their most essential structural details obtained by modern methods in structural biology. This knowledge could potentially increase the lethality of existing phages fighting bacterial infection, and facilitate creation of synthetic phages to carry drugs into bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics.