Authors: Abby E Smartt Steven Ripp
Publish Date: 2010/12/17
Volume: 400, Issue: 4, Pages: 991-1007
Abstract
Bacteriophages phages are bacterial viruses evolutionarily tuned to very specifically recognize infect and propagate within only a unique pool of host cells Knowledge of these phage host ranges permits one to devise diagnostic tests based on phage–host recognition profiles For decades fundamental phage typing assays have been used to identify bacterial pathogens on the basis of the ability of phages to kill or lyse the unique species strain or serovar to which they are naturally targeted Over time and with a better understanding of phage–host kinetics and the realization that there exists a phage specific for nearly any bacterial pathogen of clinical foodborne or waterborne consequence a variety of improved rapid sensitive and easytouse phagemediated detection assays have been developed These assays exploit every stage of the phage recognition and infection cycle to yield a wide variety of pathogen monitoring detection and enumeration formats that are steadily advancing toward new biosensor integrations and advanced sensing technologiesPortions of this review reflecting work by the author were supported by the US Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Risk Assessment Program the NASA Advanced Human Support Technology Program the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Command the Office of Naval Research and the Army Defense University Research Instrumentation Program
Keywords: